I don’t know if all of you work or have children, but work can get complicated, a loved one can become dependent, etc. In some countries labor legislation protects workers better, but in almost all of them, as a general rule, working hours don’t decrease despite having the highest levels of productivity in human history. Work and life in cities have become frenetic. An 8-hour workday (if you’re lucky), you have to commute to work which can be 30 minutes or 1 hour away, increasingly poor diet, fewer hours of sleep, worse mental health, etc.
Pointing out individual irresponsibilities isn’t entirely wrong, but it’s like blaming someone for using Google. Google engages in monopolistic practices to get people to use its service. We need to prevent monopolies so that company doesn’t consume the market. Regulation.
TikTok and all social media, as well as the entire marketing industry, do everything possible to make us spend as much time as possible in front of our phones with practices that could even be called mind control. What is the individual against the market that drives you to consume and produce? Of course, there’s hope, one can always consciously exit the cycle (or be pulled out of it).