Well, I knew at least one guy who started a casual smoking habit in college to meet girls who smoked- they had a reason to be standing around outside the buildings and strike up a conversation in a relatively non-awkward way that us non-smokers didn’t have. Another friend switched from smoking cigars to cigarettes for the same reason- to meet girls.
I suspect that the social aspect is no small part of the whole vaping thing, and for those not looking to wean off cigarettes or using it as an alternate nicotine delivery system, that’s probably 100% of it. Nobody knows that you’re not vaping the high-octane stuff after all.
Yep, it’s becoming the modern camero/mustang with all kinds of after market add ons and glossy magazines. Guys are standing around discussing coil types and drilling holes in things to modify draw (airflow I suppose). Not even making that up.
That’s sort of sad.
I think vaping can be an incredibly important tool in getting addicted smokers off of cigarettes. (There is lots of research to back this up, but I’m a bit lazy right now and don’t feel like finding links.) For me and many others, it’s been a “miracle cure” allowing us to finally quit smoking when nothing else worked.
I think the low-quality disposable e-cigs and the advertising promoting them, aimed at younger folks who want to appear cool, are going to muddy the waters about the product and provoke stronger push-backs from the FDA and various nanny-watchdog organizations to restrict or ban them. Overall, I think this is a mistake.
Anecdotally, in my line of work I’m in peoples’ homes and businesses every day, plus most of my friends are nonsmokers. Since April 2012 I have never had anyone object to me vaping. In fact I often get comments about how pleasant it smells.
If the anti-vaping lobby gets the upper hand and vaping is treated as cigarette smoke, I (and millions of other people) would probably go back to standing outside and smoking. Which IMHO would be a damn shame.
It’s possible it tastes better to teenagers who still like kid candy. I have a seven-year-old you likes all that fake fruit flavored candy that I remember liking when I was a little kid, but at some point when you reach adolescence-your early 20s, you lose your taste for that stuff (at least most people do). If that’s the sort of thing vaping is flavored with, maybe it actually tastes better to teens. Since that’s the age when most people who are going to be life-long smokers, or else people who struggle for decades before they finally quit, start, go ahead and let them play with non-addictive vapor, that they can quit easily when they are 20.
FWIW, ethylene glycol is the very highly toxic ingredient in antifreeze that is related to propylene glycol. Propylene glycol is still toxic in large amounts, but you have to drink cups of it, as opposed to a tablespoon of ethylene glycol (or a teaspoon for a small child or animal). If you buy “low tox” antifreeze, it has propylene glycol. Propylene is more expensive, and oxidizes more easily, so if your system has a leak, you will get more rust around the leak, but a leak is a problem anyway. I have been using low tox antifreeze since 2002, the first time I owned a car since low tox was on the market, and have never had problems. The things that contain propylene and are intended for consumption contain such small amounts that it would be impossible for a person to get a toxic, let alone lethal, dose of propylene by eating something containing it.
Interesting article. Confirms the existance of the sub-culture but doesn’t explain the attraction it holds to non-smokers. I guess like many trends, it’ll defy satisfactory explanation beyond: “cloud chasing” is a form of self expression and forming a social group identity around a common activity.
Well, not the younger vapers, but it does mention a subset of “connoisseurs” who vape for the flavor rather than the nicotine - in fact the owner of the store in the below quote claims to sell mostly zero-nic juice.
In fact, I just looked up the Five Pawns website and since I’m more about taste than plumes or fancy mods, I’m going to try some of their juice. I quickly outgrew the single-note flavors that are most commonly sold and enjoy complex, grown-up juices.
Well, I get that (mostly older) people who have a more developed palate and perhaps are former smokers as well, would get into the tasting aspect of it.
What I’m trying to understand is why a 15 year old who has never smoked and (AFAIK) isn’t into nicotine or pot, would be attracted to this. I realize that teens do stupid shit all the time that defies explanation. But this is my teen and I have concerns.
The usual, excuse: “Well, it’s something my friends do when we hang out…”
I’m trying to avoid the usual, “If your friends jumped off a bridge…”, rhetoric.
I asked if his friends also use nicotine filled pens or if they hack them to smoke pot or THC related products. Of course he denied it vigorously. I’m trying to take him at his word but I have a feeling I’m giving him more credit than he deserves. I just don’t want to accuse without evidence by exploring the possibility that there’s something to this trend that I just don’t get.