The phone is the new cigarette. People usually mean both are addictive. That's the obvious part. They share two other things, and those are the interesting ones.
Planes had ashtrays in the armrests. Cars came with a lighter in the dashboard. You could smoke in restaurants, on buses, in offices. Doctors smoked in hospitals. Nobody thought it was strange. It was just what people did.
The ads made it look like the good life. A cowboy on a horse, looking at the horizon, cigarette in his mouth. The Marlboro Man sold a feeling. Nobody mentioned the cost.
The cost came later. In 1964, decades after cigarettes were everywhere, the US Surgeon General published a report linking smoking to disease. Soon after, the first warning appeared on the packs: "Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health."
Phones are somewhere in that story right now. They're in every room. Every bed. Every dinner. And every feed has its own cowboy. Someone on a beach, living a better life than yours. The post never mentions the cost either.
The costs are only starting to show. In 2023, the Surgeon General put out an advisory on social media and young people's mental health. In 2024, he asked Congress for a warning label on social media, like the one on cigarettes. Not everyone agrees the evidence is that clear yet. But the comparison now comes from America's top doctor. The rules haven't caught up. Not yet.
But cigarettes and phones share something else. Not the laws we write. The laws of human nature.
Years ago a friend pointed out something I still think about. At a party, when someone ends up alone, it feels awkward. Standing there. Doing nothing.
Unless they light a cigarette. Same party. Still nobody to talk to. But now they're not doing nothing. They're smoking. And that's fine. The cigarette didn't fix the moment. It gave them something to hold.
Now we have the new version. An elevator. Just you and a stranger. Two floors of silence. Six more to go. Phone out. Eyes down. Now you're both busy. It feels safe.
People did this before phones. With a newspaper. With a book. True. But nobody carried a book into every elevator, every waiting room, every dinner. Now every room has an exit. It's in your pocket.
One day, a phone on a student's desk will look as strange as an ashtray on a plane. Or maybe not.