SIR - I think social media platforms are are psychologically addictive as gambling.

However, this is a lucrative opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry to develop a drug that would break the cycle of addiction. Just think of it: a drug that would counteract habit-forming modes of behaviour and, if universally medicated, benefit societies by freeing them from induced, commercially-motivated impulsion.

However, the drug itself would be a form of dependency.

Another way would be to have a mutually-supportive, societal belief system. But this would be unworkable, because creeds and their adherents are open to manipulation.

Individuals and societies will only become truly free when a majority of people permit their psyche to recognise and counsel liberation from all forms of insidious bondage.

Geoff Naylor, Birch Close, Winchester