I did not pay attention when the Surgeon General on Jan. 11, 1964, issued his report that advised Americans that smoking could be hazardous to the smoker’s health.

I was just 6 years old, and I only smoked those candy cigarettes during Halloween.

But I like to think, had the Surgeon General turned my head, I would have said something like, “Duh, you mean inhaling smoke laced with carcinogens causing a coughing fit and your eyes to mimic Niagara Falls isn’t good for you?”

In 1964, 42 percent of adult Americans smoked, including both of my parents, who quit soon afterward; today that percentage is 18 percent, but it has flatlined in recent years.

My eyeballs tell me that percentage is a lot higher in Robeson County, as poor people are more likely to smoke and we have a lot of poor people. Just a thought: Perhaps paying $5 for a pack of cigarettes contributes to being poor.

I am never surprised when I see an elderly person smoke, because it is probably the toughest bad habit to quit, but it angers me when I see a young person lighting up, knowing they are inviting a lifetime and a myriad of health-related problems.

I never smoked cigarettes — although many of my high school friends did, and I would guess 70 percent of my fraternity brothers. I remember vividly as a young teenager my dad telling me, “Donnie, there are two things you will never do and live in my house. Smoke cigarettes or ride on a motorcycle.”

I needed a place to stay, so I never smoked cigarettes and I never mounted a motorcycle. My father, I am sure, died wishing he had made that list a bit longer.

I am glad I didn’t start, because I have not quit much.

What my father did that day in our front yard on Rowland Avenue in the Tanglewood community is called parenting, and I think we need more of it today.

I recall this because I read recently that the Surgeon General, Vivek H. Murphy, has asked Congress to pass a law that would require warning labels on social media sites, advising that its use is “associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”

My initial reaction was that this was indicative of a Nanny State, and people in the world’s freest country should make their own decisions about using social media. Are we going to issue warnings about other behaviors that potentially could be harmful, a list without an end? I am a strong believer in choosing your own paths – and poisons.

I accept that social media has deleterious effects, especially on young people, who exercise their fingers inside the house instead of their body outside it.

They are fragile, have developing brains and face societal pressures that are amplified by platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and the like with a cell phone handy. But is it not the job of a parent to monitor a child’s social media use?

Then I remembered what I used to say when talking about how difficult it must be for educators in this county dealing with incorrigible children: “Not only do they have to deal with 24,000 students, they also deal with 36,000 parents.”

If math is not your strength, my point being that thousands of children in this county do not have two parents, much less two who are paying attention. That was my No. 1 privilege growing up as a child, two attentive parents, not my pale face.

I am fully aware that social media is a billboard for some of the worst of humanity, primarily narcissism, but also an abundance of other unattractive traits. My social media is limited to Facebook, and my consumption has been trending downward for years.

I use social media to share posts of lost dogs or cats, although Boots insists cats do not get lost, they move on; reconnect with old friends; taunt Dook fans; brag on a good round of golf or my garden’s bounty; and otherwise as needed.

I do not do politics because I do not need to give anyone another reason not to like me.

I see social media as a bad accident, sometimes difficult to look away from, where people dump daily drama that should not be for public consumption.

It is just another conversation I would love to have with Dad, whose opinion would have value because he not only did the parenting thing, but as a psychiatrist understood human behavior.

But that cannot happen.

I will tell you what else will not happen. Warning label or not, I do not see the social media surge slowing or sliding into reverse.

I hope it’s just the next thing I am wrong about.