News 25th April: A vice-like grip

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To vice is to human

I got stuck in a thought process about the various vices humans have been attracted to since the dawn of time.

It was sparked by this article from Rebecca Jennings in Vox about the search for alcohol alternatives and my own recent health-related concerns that maybe I drink alcohol a little too much sometimes. I connected it to this article from Jessica Winter in The New Yorker about smartphone addiction in kids, which made me wonder if we are just replacing one vice (booze) with others such as energy drinks, sugar, fitness, or yes, smartphones. I don’t want to make any judgement on which is better or worse than the other, but maybe more that as a species, we are drawn to vices and addictions, and you have to pick whichever works least worse for you…