I was saying the same type of thing can extend to the others. Yes, pot and alcohol are extreme examples. However there are still kids who would question it if others are allowed to and they aren't, especially if maybe they know their parents do pot in a state where it isn't legal. Event the network effects and marginalization can happen with substances. How many sober people do you see at college parties? There's some of that presenting in the high school crowds too.
I'm wondering if there are any messenger clients that can basically strip out the other portions of social media if you really want to use it just for communication.
I suppose with the mention of what is legal and what is not, we could start passing age laws on social media usage. Although many places have laws about the age needed for an email account. Seems to be generally ignored.
There are social media that almost only have messaging (e.g. in my country everyone has Whatsapp) but I think the problem is once you give a kid a smartphone, it's going to be enormously difficult to effective control what they use. Most social media have web versions, you don't even need to install anything, and good luck putting some web filter once the kid is outside the home connecting to some WiFi...
For similar reasons, legal age limits on social media wouldn't be very effective - age limits on smartphones probably would.
I'm wondering if there are any messenger clients that can basically strip out the other portions of social media if you really want to use it just for communication.
I suppose with the mention of what is legal and what is not, we could start passing age laws on social media usage. Although many places have laws about the age needed for an email account. Seems to be generally ignored.