They are and they aren't. They're both a form of escapism, for the user to deny reality while in an altered state of consciousness. Users do it to their detriment, despite social and health consequences. Thus, some of the techniques used to help people with substance use disorder (SUD) are also applicable to screen addiction. fwiw, gambling addiction is another different but same addiction with similar treatment plans. No, gambler's aren't shooting up heroin the the bathroom, nor are screen addicts, but at some level they are comparable. The first thing you reach for in the morning and the last thing you think about before bed.

This elides the difference between drugs/addictions that make you more conscious of your surroundings and those which make you less conscious of them. I put cigarettes in the same category as coffee. They make you more alert, make your brain work faster. They are sister chemicals. If I want to escape I drink or smoke weed, play video games or gamble. Cigarettes are not an escape.

In both cases the whole society is affected. I have to pay into my countries health system for people who got sick by choice. Thankfully this isnt the case for people addicted to screens.

Smoking related deaths are relatively cheap. In Canada a typical pack-a-day smoker pays an extra $5k/year in taxes, and then dies not long after they retire and start collecting social security.

A bigger burden are the healthy people who live into their 90s while their bodies slowly decay over the span of decades

Are those who develop mental illness as a result of screen addiction not sick by choice?

smoking, alcoholism and obesity are fiscal positives, not negatives.

smokers pay obscene amount of money in cigarette tax for decades only to die in their 50's or 60's instead of collecting the benefits of having also contributed into social security all their lives. most of them die suddenly from a heart attack or after a short illness.

You can completely abstain from smoking for health reasons and there's no downside.

Screentime is a part of life. You can abstain but you fall behind in some ways.

Screen time is also linked to the pace of technology, advancement, etc. It's unavoidably pushed into our lives.

These seem like two very different issues to me.

Smoking used to be an unavoidably pushed part of life, too. It was linked to strength, manliness (or femininity actually, depending on the target market), independence, etc. Tobacco company mascots loomed over us from billboards, and told us on TV that cigarettes make a person cool. Untold billions of dollars were spent on marketing literal poison, using every trick in the book, and it worked. People smoked all the time, everywhere - at the dinner table, on planes, at their desk at work. People burned their houses down because they went to sleep with a cigarette still in their mouth.

Just because something feels like an unavoidable part of life, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true - it could just mean that that giant advertising companies convinced you that it is. I wonder if in a couple decades we’ll look back at screen addiction the same way we look at tobacco now.

I understand how cigarettes were advertised and pushed, and seemingly unavoidable.

Is technology the same? Yes and no...we can totally abstain from tech and live that lifestyle. But then we wouldn't be here discussing this issue at all, or ever.

So while they are both pushed: if you cut out smoking today you can still live a 'normal' life. Cutting out tech is a drastically different life.

I'd rather not discuss what is meant by 'normal' -- I hope you get where I'm coming from.

I think “using technology” is just too broad, and a distinction needs to be made. Screen addiction doesn’t just mean using a screen.

You’re right that it’d be pretty much impossible to refuse to engage with any modern technology these days (unless you lived in an Amish community or something similar); but obviously there’s a huge difference between responsible use of tech where useful or necessary (and for fun, too, in moderation!), and lying in bed mindlessly scrolling through Tiktok and/or watching cable tv for hours every day - which I see a lot more people doing in the past couple years.