Former Surgeon General Adams Compares Social Media Addiction to Cigarettes

Three teenage children sit at home while their father goes on national television to compare their apps to cigarettes. Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general under President Trump, pressed the analogy on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" Sunday, arriving at a moment when the question of what the government can actually do about social media addiction has moved from academic to urgent.

"As a doctor and as a parent, I'm convinced of these facts," Adams told Brennan. "We know, based on Surgeon General Murthy's report, that there is increasing and very valid evidence out there showing links between social media use, particularly at a younger age, and increasing anxiety, increasing depression, less sleep, which actually leads to mental health problems and also obesity."

His prescription echoed the tobacco campaigns of a generation ago: "similar to cigarettes, point out the fact that these substances, meaning social media platforms, are incredibly addictive."

The framing is no longer merely rhetorical. An estimated 210 million people worldwide are considered addicted to social media. American teenagers average more than seven hours of daily screen time, according to Common Sense Media. Nearly one in five teens who use TikTok say they use it "almost constantly," according to Pew Research Center.

What cigarette-style regulation would actually require depends on which arm of government moves first. Congress holds a ready vehicle in the Kids Off Social Media Act, S.278 in the 119th Congress. At the state level, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation mandating warning labels on platforms that use autoplay, infinite scroll, and algorithmic feeds. Colorado passed a similar law before a federal district court temporarily blocked it in November 2025, which would have required social media platforms to display warning messages to users under 18. The Federal Trade Commission holds authority over deceptive design practices, while the FDA, which ultimately regulated tobacco advertising, has no current mandate covering digital platforms and would need a Congressional grant of jurisdiction to act.

The Los Angeles courtroom where Meta and Google face a consolidated trial over child addiction claims has given the analogy fresh legal traction. Plaintiffs allege the companies concealed damaging internal research, sold a product engineered to be addictive, and aggressively marketed to underage users, a pattern that mirrors the conduct that brought down Big Tobacco in the late 20th century.

But critics at the American Enterprise Institute have called the tobacco comparison "deceptively flawed," arguing that Instagram and YouTube are not on par with tobacco companies simply because plaintiffs' attorneys say so. The analogy is strongest where documentary evidence exists: internal memos, design decisions favoring engagement over wellbeing, and the targeting of minors. It weakens when applied to remedy. Cigarette regulation ultimately rested on banning advertising to children and mandating warnings on a physical product, levers that translate awkwardly to software delivered through a phone, with no measurable physical withdrawal and a broad spectrum of legitimate communicative use.

Adams acknowledged the limits of the moment, saying he was "happy that we're having a conversation." Given that federal legislation remains stalled and state warning-label laws face active court challenges, that may be the most honest measure of where the country actually stands.