‘Social media is like driving with no speed limits’: the US surgeon general fighting for youngsters’ happiness

Dr Vivek Murthy has likened the dangers of an unregulated social media landscape to putting a child in a car without a seatbelt. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

It was the hush that worried the US’s top doctor as he toured the country’s university campuses last year.

Dr Vivek Murthy went to places including Duke, University of Texas and Arizona State, but so many youngsters were plugged into earphones and gazing into laptops and phones that it was incredibly quiet in the communal areas. Where was the loud chatter Murthy remembered from his college days?