Plan raises eyebrows

Is social media facing a fate like cigarettes?

Social media is increasingly being criticized for its allegedly harmful influence.(Bild: ImageFlow)

"We are in the midst of an emergency," warns Dr. Vivek Murthy, one of the top health officials in the USA, about the dangers of social media for children and young people. His plan to protect them from Facebook & Co. makes people sit up and take notice.

We Austrians spend an average of one hour and 32 minutes a day on social networks - extrapolated over the course of a year, that's around 23 days or almost four years of our lives, as the Upper Austrian marketing company artworx calculates in its latest "Social Media Report Austria". But what does this do to our psyche, especially that of our children and young people?