‘What’s more harmful than cigarettes but society treats it as normal?’ – 21 dangers hiding in plain sight

Nowadays it seems bizarre to imagine that people smoked in offices, pubs and restaurants and nobody gave it a second thought, but it wasn’t even 20 years ago that it was banned.

So that must mean there things that are currently completely acceptable but will be outlawed in two decades, right? They’ve been discussing that these might be on the AskReddit page after Jiwitom asked this:

What’s more harmful than cigarettes but society treats it as normal?

And lots of people had thoughts on the things we haven’t quite accepted are bad for us, like these…

1.

‘Chronic stress and zero sleep. We treat burnout like a badge of honour, meanwhile it’s quietly destroying people.’
–dylanatmidnight

2.

‘Gambling, though we seem to be slowly catching on at least.’
–InterestingBill8234

3.

‘For me it’s social media addiction. People joke about it but it’s literally rewiring attention spans.’
–Jiwitom

4.

‘I’m 47 and struggle, and my brain was developed WITHOUT it. I’m legitimately worried for younger people who were raised during Facebook.’
–Apprehensive-Lock751

5.

‘The number of people doomscrolling while driving is legitimately concerning. Look around while at a red light at any busy intersection. We are the people in Wall-E.’
–jathww

6.

‘Poverty.’
–mckulty

7.

‘Cars are pretty outrageous how many people they kill. We could improve this a lot.’
–National-Reception53

8.

‘Prolonged sitting. Guys, please get up and move more. If you have the ability to get a standing desk or modifier, get one. At the least get up and take a lap every half hour. Too much sitting causes so much damage to the body.’
–Technical-Banana574

9.

‘Processed foods.’
–kronik419

10.

‘Maybe not more harmful, but just as bad: alcohol.’
–autumnautopsy

11.

‘Not having universal healthcare.’
–Shadowfox186

12.

‘Dating apps. Skews expectations, low barrier to entry makes you feel like you are putting in effort, 0 accountability or commitment. Would not disagree if someone said it was a significant factor in the loneliness epidemic (both men and women).’
–tolebelon