Did You Know Social Media is More Dangerous Than Marijuana

1/27/22, 4:23 PM Social Media vs. Cannabis - Which One is More Dangerous?
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/social-media-vs.-cannabis-which-one-is-more-dangerous 2/15
 Edit Article (https://cannabis.net/mycannabis/c-blog-entry/update/social-media-vs.-cannabis-which-one-is-more-dangerous)
 Article List (https://cannabis.net/mycannabis/c-blog)

SOCIAL MEDIA VS CANNABIS
Social Media vs. Cannabis - Which One is
More Dangerous?
The perils of social media dwarf any reefer madness stories about marijuana
Posted by:

Reginald Reefer, today at 12:00am
We’re often told about the dangers of cannabis. We’re told that if you smoke cannabis as a young person, you
significantly increase your risk of Schizophrenia. We’re told that you’ll be cognitively less capable if you smoke before a
certain age and that cannabis is a Schedule I drug, sitting right there with heroin and crack cocaine.

Of course, for those of us who smoke – we know that these claims are absolute horse shit, however, I thought that it
would be an interesting concept to compare the “dangers of social media” in comparison to that of cannabis. We’ll use
many of the same metrics that anti-cannabis campaigners used to justify prohibition.
We’ll be looking at things such as “how addictive is it?” and “has anyone died as a result of using it?” and other metrics
including, effects on your body, mind, motivation and drive and so forth.
The idea is to paint a generalized picture on how a massively integrated technology experience is blindly accepted and
often glamorized by the very people who would throw a hissy-fit about cannabis use.
Age

Let’s start with the first metric, age. Within virtually every legal cannabis marketplace, cannabis has an entry-level age
requirement of at least 21-years. In places like Mexico, this is set to 18-years; however, this is not the norm. For most
legal markets, you have to be considered an “adult” to partake of cannabis.
However, for both Twitter and Facebook, you only need to be 13-years old to essentially be exposed to the entire world.
Places like Twitter even permits nudity, and while they probably have some sort of restriction on under-aged accounts,
it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to bypass those restrictions.
Some might say, “13 isn’t that young to be on Social Media” but I’m sure the people who echo this sentiment hasn’t
looked at how Social Media affects our brains.
Physiological Effects of Social Media vs Cannabis
Cannabis interacts with the endocannabinoid system – the system that is responsible for maintaining homeostasis
throughout the entire body. Phytocannabinoids bond to cannabinoid receptors which engages or disengages a
particular bodily function. When you consume THC, the psychoactive cannabinoid in cannabis, it binds with CB1 and
CB2 receptors, which then alters the brain function from its baseline. The euphoria you feel comes from the release of
dopamine among other physiological processes.
A study commissioned by Fox News looked into how Social Media impacted the brain and according to some health
experts;
"Facebook likes and comments activate similar parts of the brain as opioids, where each like or positive comment activates the
reward system and the brain releases dopamine…arguably, the feelings/experiences of the brain as a result of Facebook likes
or comments is similar to those resulting from cocaine, albeit less intense…In addition, opioids have other significant negative
effects on the brain, including shrinkage of grey matter and loss of memory." Dr. Tara Emrani (SOURCE
(read://https_www.foxnews.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Ftech%2Ffacebook-cocaine-opioids-how-
addictive-is-the-social-network))

Even former Facebook executives have expressed how they engineered their product to act in an addictive fashion or as
they call it a “short-term dopamine-driven feedback loops”. The use of social media has often been compared to
gambling or the use of cocaine. And while social media bypasses the need for physically ingesting a drug, they create
the illusion of one which activates the same regions.
When you remove the fact that social media is “digital”, it is a drug by any other metric and seems to have real world
impact on societal health as well.
Deaths
When it comes to cannabis, there is no possible way to have a lethal overdose from the drug itself. However, there is a
case to be made for people who used cannabis and potentially had an underlying morbidity that lead to their death.
This cannot be attributed directly to cannabis, but to say that cannabis use didn’t have an effect would be disingenuous.
A study (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30925348/) looking into these types of deaths concluded; “While it is a drug
with widespread usage among the community with relatively few deaths when faced with a circumstance of very recent use
(within a few hours), a positive blood concentration of THC and a possible cardiac-related or cerebrovascular cause of death
this drug should be considered, at least, a contributory cause of death in cases of sudden or unexpected death.”
In other words, there are “potential deaths” linked to cannabis but it isn’t conclusive. It’s merely correlation at this point.
However, this isn’t to say that there is “no risk”, as smoking weed could potentially be a trigger for an underlying
condition.
Social Media also has no real way to induce a “lethal dose” seeing that you aren’t technically “dosing” yourself. However,
there is a type of death count attributed to Social Media, Suicide.
When you look at Suicide Rates (https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/), they have been steadily climbing since about the
mid-2000s, interestingly about the same time that Social Media was adopted by society. There’s also numerous studies
looking into this. Here’s some findings published in a Systemic Review of these studies;

The previous study found a 70% increase in self-reported depressive symptoms among the group using social media. The other
social media influence that causes depression is sexual fun [12]. The intimacy fun happens when social media promotes
putting on a facade that highlights the fun and excitement but does not tell us much about where we are struggling in our
daily lives at a deeper level [28]. Another study revealed that depression and time spent on Facebook by adolescents are
positively correlated [22]. More importantly, symptoms of major depression have been found among the individuals who spent
most of their time in online activities and performing image management on social networking sites [14]. - SOURCE
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7364393/)
Conclusion
When you compare cannabis and social media, you can see that both of them definitely have some sort of psycho-
physiological effect on the individual, however – when it comes to Social Media we have no problem letting 13-year olds
engage with a multitude of platforms.
Perhaps, if we treated Social Media as we treat Cannabis…the world would be much better for it.
CANNABIS AND SOCIAL MEDIA, READ MORE...
(https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-has-a-social-media-
problem)

CANNABIS HAS A SOCIAL MEDIA PROBLEM, CAN IT BE FIXED? (https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-has-a-
social-media-problem)
OR..
(https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/does-the-social-media-ban-on-cbd-
ads-make-any-sense-at-all)
WHY DID SOCIAL MEDIA BAN CBD ADS, IT MAKES NO SENSE. (https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/does-the-social-
media-ban-on-cbd-ads-make-any-sense-at-all)
What did you think?
0 0 0 0 0 0

Keep reading... click here
(https://cannabis.net/blog)
Leave a Comment:
Submit
What are your thoughts?

OPINION (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/OPINION) HISTORY (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/HISTORY)
FUNNY (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/FUNNY) SEXY (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/SEXY)
VIDEOS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/VIDEOS) VAPING (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/VAPING)
TECHNOLOGY (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/TECHNOLOGY) STRAINS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/STRAINS)
INTERVIEW (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/INTERVIEW) SPORTS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/SPORTS)
VOTE (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/VOTE) NEWS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/NEWS)
EVENTS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/EVENTS) DABS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/DABS)
MEDICAL (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/MEDICAL) SMOKE (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/SMOKE)
B2B (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/B2B) PERSONAL STORY (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/PERSONAL-STORY)
LOCATIONS (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/LOCATIONS) RECIPES (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/RECIPES)
HOW TO (HTTPS://CANNABIS.NET/BLOG/HOW-TO)
CATEGORIES
FEATURED

MEDICAL
What Do Chocolate and THC Have in Common?
Cannabinoids are fat-soluble chemicals found in plants and mammals. It has also medicinal properties. THC in cannabis is one of the most studied cannabinoids
and also one of the most notorious ones. THC, when activated, has psychoactive properties. In the endocannabinoid system, there is a cannabinoid

(https://cannabis.net/blog/medical/what-do-chocolate-and-thc-have-in-common)
(https://cannabis.net/blog/news/world-health-organization-cannabis-is-relatively-safe)
NEWS
World Health Organization: Cannabis Is “Relatively Safe”
They concluded that cannabis is a “relatively safe drug,” and also acknowledged the fact that millions of individuals around the world are already using it for its
medicinal properties.

Did You Know Social Media is More Dangerous Than Marijuana

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Did You Know Social Media is More Dangerous Than Marijuana

Similar to Did You Know Social Media is More Dangerous Than Marijuana (19)

More from Cannabis News

More from Cannabis News (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Did You Know Social Media is More Dangerous Than Marijuana