BETA nonprofit public democratic european moderated

Search

#addiction

Excited to share our Cross-Species Single-cell Atlas of the Human Brain's Striatum, the brain region that integrates action planning, reward, motivation, decision-making, movement, learning, and reinforcement, implicated in schizophrenia, depression, addiction, and Huntington's https://t.co/kFYoAGyEJ0 #Neuroscience #BrainResearch #SingleCellAtlas #Nospecificcountrycodesarementionedinthetweet.

Excited to share our Cross-Species Single-cell Atlas of the Human Brain's Striatum, the brain region that integrates action planning, reward, motivation, decision-making, movement, learning, and reinforcement, implicated in schizophrenia, depression, addiction, and Huntington's https://t.co/O9Gidmene8 #SingleCellAtlas #HumanBrain #Neuroscience #Thetweetdoesnotmentionanyspecificcountries.Therefore #therearenocountrycodestoreturn.

More than 11 million students return to school on September 1, 2026, with a new measure banning mobile phones in high school, criticized by the Minister of National Education as a response to a form of screen addiction. (translated)

Rentrée des classes : plus de 11 millions d'élèves de retour dans leurs établissements... sans téléphone portable
L'Obs 2d

The ban on mobile phones in high schools, promoted by Emmanuel Macron as a measure against screen addiction, is considered insufficient to address the real challenges of national education. (translated)

Interdiction du portable au lycée : une réponse macroniste pas à la hauteur des défis de l’Education nationale

The article explores the evolution of the perception of Facebook, moving from the positive image conveyed by The Social Network to a sharper criticism in the sequel The Social Reckoning, highlighting the consequences of revelations about the company's practices and the recent $18 billion settlement with U.S. states to resolve complaints about social media addiction. (translated)

De “The Social Network” à “The Social Reckoning”, le regard sur Facebook a changé
2

The addiction to Pokémon cards, exacerbated by speculation and social media, leads some adults to compulsive buying behaviors and debt, transforming this children's game into a real form of addiction. (translated)

Pokémon : « C’était devenu une obsession »… Quand le jeu de cartes pour enfants vire à l'addiction et au surendettement
H

When Therapy Replaces Morality: The Rise of the Therapy State By replacing religious frameworks with therapy speak, Western society may have lost its moral “grammar” and traded it for clinical language—though moral and psychological categories work differently. The DSM has expanded dramatically: in 1952 it listed 102 disorders; by 2013 it had over 400. Meanwhile, young adults report worsening mental health: poor mental-health days among 18–25-year-olds rose from 3.5 to 6 per month between 1993 and 2020, and depression diagnoses more than doubled from 2006 to 2020. Yet the most striking shift is self-diagnosis. About one in four American adults suspect they have ADHD, while actual prevalence is around 6%. Social media fills the gap: many popular ADHD and autism clips include misleading or unsupported claims. The label persists because it serves a function. A diagnosis increasingly becomes identity—and identity becomes a shield. When someone claims ADHD, anxiety, or trauma, they may be drawing a boundary others are not allowed to cross. Where moral language asks what we should become, therapeutic language labels what we are; once the label becomes identity, the conversation often ends. Religious language framed forces as external, preserving agency—you could resist. Therapeutic culture internalizes them: you don’t have weakness to overcome; you have ADHD. Jung argued that old gods and demons didn’t vanish; they became neuroses, anxieties, and addictions—turning questions of conscience and choice into labels to accept. The result isn’t greater freedom but greater control. If a civilization can’t say “wrong,” it doesn’t necessarily become more tolerant. Moral language permits disagreement and growth; therapeutic language can pathologize it and end discussion. The therapy state is the successor to moral authority—and it may be easier to enforce.

H

The Politics of Pity For a decade, the West has argued whether empathy should be its highest value. Some praise it as a superpower; others call it harmful. Gad Saad’s “Suicidal Empathy” topped the New York Times list. Elon Musk called empathy a weakness; John C. Reilly called it a superpower. Ideas should be judged by consequences. Compassion-justified policies have coincided with worse addiction and homelessness, rising crime, mass migration, social fragmentation, higher living costs, and controversial medical interventions for gender-dysphoric minors. When these fail, advocates often claim it was not implemented “strongly enough.” ## An Inversion of Truth A quote often attributed to Hannah Arendt claims “the death of human empathy” precedes barbarism, but no source supports it, and her writings argued almost the opposite. Arendt contrasted the American Revolution’s institutions and law with the French revolutionaries’ “politics of pity.” Pity is not compassion: it ranks “fortunate” and “unfortunate,” grants the pitier moral authority, and overrides rights. Arendt argued this enabled Robespierre’s Terror. ## The Trojan Horse Empathy can become projection—imposing your values as if they were others’ needs. Adam Smith warned about the “man of system.” Nietzsche described societies so “soft and tender” they side with those who harm them. Orwell noted equality preaching alongside elite privilege. Rob Henderson calls these “luxury beliefs.” I call it suicidal narcissism: acquiring moral status by appearing compassionate while policies erode the foundations others rely on. The reward is immediate; the damage comes later.

H

Where the Money Goes When the Problem Grows The worst evil is identifying a problem—addiction, illness, hatred—then building an industry to “solve” it. Organizations grow, the problem worsens. Many call this wasted money. Some argue for more funding or stricter oversight. After decades of the same results, a reasonable person should ask whether it’s failure—or the system working as designed. Call it the Caretaker’s Incentive. Three conditions keep problems managed forever: status (praise for “tending” the afflicted), money (budgets rise with the problem and shrink when it improves), and conscience (moral framing shields caretakers from questioning their role). Economist Bruce Yandle described a parallel in “Bootleggers and Baptists.” In Prohibition, moral reformers and profitable bootleggers backed the same policy for different reasons, with virtue providing cover. Today, reformers and funded interests may be the same institution, making corruption harder to spot. When the mission is caring for the elderly, it’s easy to hide fraud behind compassion. Costs spread across millions, benefits concentrate among insiders. No one loses enough to unite against it; insiders gain enough to defend it. The people being paid are awake. The people paying are asleep. C.S. Lewis warned in 1948 that torment for “our own good” can continue endlessly because conscience approves. Corruption is dressed as virtue—and those who object are shamed.

H

The Therapy State Western society has traded moral language for therapy-speak, losing moral grammar and replacing it with clinical categories that don’t work the same way. About 25% of American adults suspect they have ADHD, though prevalence is 6%; on TikTok, most top ADHD videos include unsupported claims. People misdiagnose themselves far more often than they correctly identify mental illness—and yet self-diagnosis persists because it serves a social function. Moral categories allow disagreement: you can argue about right and wrong, measure choices against standards, and debate what those standards require. Psychological categories pathologize disagreement: diagnosis becomes identity, and identity becomes a shield. When someone claims ADHD, anxiety, or trauma, they’re not just describing symptoms—they’re setting a boundary you’re not allowed to question. The shift from “what we should aim for” to “what we are” ends the conversation. Jung saw this displacement mechanism: modern gods and demons don’t vanish; they become neuroses, anxieties, addictions, and therapeutic labels. The question of conscience and choice becomes a fixed identity that must be accepted. Unlike religious frameworks that locate forces outside you and invite struggle, therapy culture internalizes the forces—so the label replaces agency. You don’t resist weakness; you *are* it. And because boundaries can’t be crossed, change becomes harder. When a civilization loses the ability to say “wrong,” it doesn’t become more tolerant—it becomes more rigid. The therapy state replaces moral authority, with disastrous results.

L'Obs 7d

A friendly agreement of 18 billion dollars has been reached between Meta and several U.S. states, putting an end to a major lawsuit over teen addiction to social media, a decision described as a significant upheaval by experts. (translated)

Accord à 18 milliards pour Meta : « Ces mesures vont toucher au cœur du système, c’est un bouleversement majeur »

The EU is asking Meta to impose in Europe measures similar to those adopted in the United States to limit the time spent by minors on Instagram and Facebook, as part of an investigation into the addiction risks associated with these platforms. (translated)

L'UE demande à Meta d'appliquer en Europe les mesures annoncées aux Etats-Unis pour limiter le temps passé par les mineurs sur Instagram et Facebook

The European Union calls on Meta to strengthen child protection by improving screen time management and parental controls on its platforms, following an agreement in the United States aimed at mitigating the impact of Instagram and Facebook on teenagers. (translated)

Meta doit "aussi protéger nos enfants", avertit l'Europe

USA - Dangers and addiction to social networks: Meta will limit access to Facebook and Instagram to two hours a day and disable notifications at night for minors (translated)

BFMTV 1w

Meta has reached a settlement agreement with 29 U.S. states to end a lawsuit concerning accusations of contributing to minors' addiction to its social media platforms, a decision hailed as a victory by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. (translated)

Addiction aux réseaux sociaux: Meta trouve un accord amiable avec 29 États américains

Meta has agreed to pay up to $16.68 billion (some say around $18 billion in total) to settle a lawsuit filed by several U.S. states. These states accused Facebook and Instagram of having deliberately made their platforms addictive to (translated)

2

Meta has agreed to pay up to $16.7 billion and to implement restrictions on the use of its Instagram and Facebook applications by teenagers, including limited screen time and notifications blocked during the night and class hours, as part of an agreement with around forty U.S. states aimed at combating social media addiction. (translated)

Etats-Unis : Temps limité, likes masqués… Le point sur les concessions de Meta, accusé de créer une addiction aux réseaux
L'Obs 1w

Meta announced that it will limit the use of Instagram and Facebook to two hours a day for teenagers and block access to the apps from midnight to 6 a.m., as part of a $16 billion deal to end a lawsuit over minors' addiction to social media. (translated)

Aux Etats-Unis, Meta va limiter Instagram à deux heures par jour pour les ados et bloquer les vidéos la nuit

Meta has agreed to pay up to $16.68bn to settle its blockbuster legal battle with more than two dozen US states over alleged failures of child protection and social media addiction https://t.co/3qH9XUUyEz #Meta #ChildProtection #SocialMediaAddiction #US

Meta has agreed to pay over 16 billion dollars in a settlement with several U.S. states to resolve allegations of addiction to its social networks among minors and is committed to modifying its products to protect young users. (translated)

Addiction aux réseaux sociaux : Meta va payer plus de 16 milliards de dollars