A reader of the LA Times make a peculiar comparison of social media to comics

A letter writer to the Los Angeles Times answered a topic about why children shouldn't have access to social media,

Guest contributor Jessica L. Schleider makes a convincing argument that blaming social media for children’s problems is an oversimplification of the issue (“If social platforms are harmful, don’t just ban kids. Regulate the harms,” Feb. 25).

This isn’t the first time popular media has been illogically blamed. In 1954, psychiatrist Frederic Wertham published “Seduction of the Innocent,” a book claiming comic books led to juvenile delinquency. Part of his reasoning? He’d seen boys in reform school reading comic books, a classic example of putting the cart before the horse.

The psychiatric community was largely not impressed with such a simplistic explanation and regarded Wertham as a crank. Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee recounted that Wertham “said things that impressed the public, and it was like shouting fire in a theater, but there was little scientific validity to it. And yet because he had the name ‘doctor,’ people took what he said seriously, and it started a whole crusade against comics.”

I think this is a very absurdly naive comparison and perspective, since social media isn't just one company or publication like some comics publishers, and there have been children over past years who were influenced by the Islamic State via social media. When any kind of modern medium is exploited for pushing evil ideologies far more than comics of the past century ever did, how can you make an argument that social media has no downside?

Furthermore, social media's done little to improve the dire state of comicdom in modern times artistically, and practically made things worse, because of all the cancel culture that sprang up in the past decade, and even today, it's not like it's entirely improved. One more reason it may be best not to allow underage children to use social media, because what if they end up becoming part of the problem? There've been pollings indicating that many USA residents favor barring children from social media until they're 16, and they certainly should be taught good manners in addition before they can go online and make use of them. Otherwise, they wouldn't make good comic readers any more than good social media posters.