I am in my mid 40’s and I do not smoke. Both of my parents smoked in our house where I grew up. I was able to convince both of them to quit, after I moved out. Most people I know that do smoke do it because they are addicted to the nicotine and can’t figure out how to quit.
My wife and I were eating this weekend at a fairly nice restaurant on their outdoor patio. There was a table across the way from us, that had two couples that appeared to be in their late 20’s or early 30’s. All four people were chain smoking…even through their meal.
I regularly see younger people in their 20’s and 30’s smoking, usually at sporting events, driving, etc. With the passage of anti-smoking laws seeing them is becoming less and less frequent.
I’m sure the simple answer to my question is the same for most of my friends that smoke…they are addicted to the nicotine and can’t quit. But why did large groups of this generation start smoking at levels to get addicted in the first place. They can’t claim ignorance that smoking is addictive and will kill you, like most of my parents and grandparent’s generations. So why?
It is surprising to find out how many young smokers do not consider themselves addicted. They are “social smokers” and they will tell you they don’t have to. Of course the vast majority of these people will wake up one day completely addicted, but don’t bother telling that to them.
Also, when you smoke you have an instant community. That is a very powerful incentive for young people.
This was me. I was a social smoker in my teen years. In college I quit for a while then picked it back up and became a social smoker again. After college I became a more dedicated social smoker who could quit any time I wanted, but still smoked a pack a day. When I started smoking 2 packs a day is when I admitted to myself that I was really a smoker and that I was addicted and needed to quit. 4 years later I managed to quit.
I’m 26. Because I like it. I started on clove cigarettes, which are delicious, but since they’ve been technically outlawed, nobody carries them anymore and I have no choice but to smoke cigarettes.
There are lots of people in my age range that only smoke socially when drinking. Cigarettes frankly taste good with liquor.
And I’m addicted, yes. I’ve never denied it. I just don’t care.
I’m 28 and most of the people I know who smoke do so because they waited tables. Waitstaff are generally not given a break in the same way that most employees are and their supervisor will tell them to suck it up if they want to take 15 minutes and sit down in the back room but they can get 3-4 10 minute breaks to sit on an overturned pickle bucket in the alley if they are a smoker.
This is tbh the only reason why my roommate started smoking. And also why I think the restaurant industry needs some serious fucking oversight. No breaks, no health insurance, no time off, undependable schedules, and the payscale (as they’re dependent on tips which allows the restaurant to pay them less than minimum wage). So much bullshit.
FWIW I’m 32 and while I had plenty of smoking buddies in college (it was hard not to run into them, as they were the ones outside with me) NONE of the people in my social group smoke. I rarely run in to other smokers at parties. I go to this sci-fi movie festival every year and the house is packed but there’s only maybe 4 of us outside smoking.
From what I’ve observed, a lot of people my age DON’T smoke because their parents smoked and they hated it. Or because smoking is gross/bad/expensive. Me, I started because my dad smokes and I LIKED it.
Oh, and I worked in the restaurant business. Not as a server but in the kitchen and it definitely was a nice way to grab a break.
I generally don’t see anyone smoking, but maybe that’s because I’m a smoker and wish I wasn’t alone.
I actually quit and haven’t touched one for 3 months, but I still consider myself a smoker. As Craig Ferguson put it “I’m a smoker who chooses not to smoke.”
Not my feeling about restaurant work at all. I waited tables all through college and had a flexible schedule and made way more money serving working far less hours than I could have doing something else. I met a lot of cool, fun people. And I got a lot of good practice working with the public. No time off? Not sure where you worked, but we would just let the manager know our availability each week. If we couldn’t make a shift, we just traded with someone else.
It is true that nearly all restaurant workers smoke.
I was a true social smoker ages 15-21 or so (I’m 25 now). I got my start in the nuthouse age 15, where everyone smoked like a chimney. Later in my life a lot of my friends smoked, and all my co-workers when I worked at restaurants. It was fun to take smoke breaks with everyone else, and it was extra-fun to smoke when I was drinking a lot (I stopped getting drunk with my friends when I was about 20 though). In the beginning I bought my own packs semi-regularly, one would last me about a week. As I got older and more health-conscious I would just ‘bum’ from my friends or coworkers who smoked, occasionally. Eventually I stopped doing even that. I don’t consider myself to have an addictive personality, there have been times in my life where I smoked more cigarettes, smoked lots of weed, got drunk 5 nights per week, but they were all short-lived and due to the influence of people I was hanging with at the time, I had no problem doing those things less and didn’t miss it when I decided to stop entirely. Now I am really sensitive to cigarette smoke and will get a sore, scratchy throat and watering eyes from being exposed to just a little second-hand smoke…
I have old friends who have never even tried smoking, they were always much more conservative and well-behaved than my smoking friends (who were mostly party-animals) and had very few friends that smoked themselves.
I have to add that I find restaurant work to be a cakewalk.
How idiotic. Anyone that feels that they have to use smoking as an excuse to just get a 10 minute break deserves to work waiting tables or slinging hash. I waited tables in my younger days and didn’t hesitate to take breaks when everyone around me was taking smoking breaks, and never had a boss look crossways.
And you think every boss is like yours… why, exactly? Sounds like your job was the exception to the rule. Judging other waiters/waitresses who don’t get breaks (unless they smoke) harshly because you were working in a job that allowed you to take breaks (even if you didn’t smoke) is comparing apples to oranges, and makes you sound like a jerk who isn’t paying attention. More than that, it’s clear you’re pushing an agenda and are not a credible source on the subject.
It will depend on the boss, IME. If the boss is a smoker, then smokers get smoke breaks while nonsmokers are expected to just work through the shift. If the boss ISN’T a smoker, or is a considerate smoker, then everyone gets or doesn’t get the same breaks, smoker or not. Some smokers don’t consider smoke breaks to be real breaks, but just a necessity.
I had a friend who’d be 28 now, if he were still alive. He smoked because it pissed his parents off. Nothing really more than that, at least not at first. Later, he said he liked how it calmed him down. I guess that if you’ve never actually seen the effects of smoking first-hand, it could be easy to dismiss them, especially if you’re a teenager, since at that age, most of us are convinced we’re immortal. I, however, knew how to put a regulator on an oxygen tank when I was around eight or so, due to two heavily smoking grandparents. You couldn’t pay me to smoke.