Concerns about addiction and distraction have arisen repeatedly during the moral panics of the past, and we must accept these statements with caution. Sociologist Frank Furedi has documented how "inattention has served as a sublimated focus for apprehensions about moral authority" since at least the beginning of the 18th century. With each new form of media or medium, the older generation uses the same "children today!" fears about how the younger generation has apparently lost the ability to focus or reason effectively.

For example, in the past century, critics have said the same thing about radio and television broadcasting, comparing them to tobacco in terms of addiction and suggesting that media companies were “manipulating” us to listen or watch. Rock and roll and rap music received the same treatment, and similar panics about video games still persist today.

Strangely, many elites, politicians and parents forget that they too were children and that their generation was probably also hopelessly lost in the "vast desert" of whatever popular technology or content of the time. The Pessimists Archive podcast documented dozens of examples of this recurring phenomenon. Each generation goes through the panic of the day, only to turn around and start criticizing new media or technologies that they fear may be rotting their children to the core. While these panics come and go, the real danger is that they sometimes result in concrete political actions that censor the content or eliminate the options that the public has access to. These regulatory actions can also discourage the appearance of new choices.