Given all the information regarding the dangers of smoking, why does anybody still do it? It’s disgusting, smelly and kills.
I understand kids bowing to peer pressure and I realize it’s addictive, but people do quit. So, I guess what I’m asking is why any adult would ever start smoking in the first place these days.
It tastes good, and is very relaxing.
Well, technically it only seems “relaxing” cuz yer preventing withdrawal symptoms by getting your fix.
I think a lot of people take up smoking in bars when they are drinking, and slowly they let the smoking creep in other places.
I started smoking about 3 years ago when my boyfriend and I broke up. For some reason, sitting out on my porch and smoking was soothing. Hard to explain.
Anyway, I got hooked and I’m now a smoker. Incidentally I my pack is empty, and I haven’t replaced it. I haven’t smoked in over 24 hours. So maybe I won’t be a smoker anymore. I’m guessing, though, that I will start again soon.
Oh, I also think it tastes good.
Good question, photopat!
I was planning on asking this here but you beat me to it.
The vast majority of people who say that they like the taste did NOT like the way it tasted the very first time they smoked. In fact, a few friends of mine who smoke have told me their first cigarette was absolutely disgusting. But they continued smoking anyway, until they became addicted.
Why do people smoke?
I used to be a light smoker. 4-6 filterless Camels a day. I quit a couple of years ago.
To me it was like a nice little meditation. A break from the world.
It was hell on my body, though.
Cuz it’s so cooolll!, seriously i’m 37 and I have been smoking since I was a teenager, I like it!, I like the taste, it relaxes me, it relieves stress, and the way I figure it I have to die of something, if I quit smoking and lost weight and watched what I ate, I would probably get run over by a bus driven by a fat, smoker “sorry officer, I didn’t see him, I was too busy smoking!” (the preceding joke was stolen from Denis Leary).
unclviny
People smoke because of the alternative.
Because they don’t want to live 10 extra years in the resthome drooling, wetting themselves and talking to the wallpaper?
I don’t really notice the taste too much one way or the other, but I originally started smoking when I started doing tech support for an ISP.
It occured to me one day that going out to have a cigarette was an interesting way to spend a break. So I’d go out and have a smoke and chit chat with other smokers. (On a side note, I’ve always seemed to get on better with smokers than non-smokers)
After this, smoking a cigarette sort of evolved to a mile marker. One on the drive to work. One on break. Three on lunch. Two on break. Two on the drive home. Something I did with consistency and looked forward to. “Ooh. Only 20 mins till my last smoke break. Wahoo!”
Then one night I tried to hit a local coffeehouse without my cigarettes. And what I noticed was that I wasn’t comfortable interacting. I honestly missed filling those lulls in conversation with a familiar click hiss and composing my thoughts while I took a pull from my cigarette and let the smoke trail from my mouth.
I honestly have to say that I enjoy the act of smoking.
That’s why I do it.
Well, dying from lung cancer isn’t exactly pleasant either.
First off, I don’t smoke.
But I’d imagine people who do smoke have the same reasons as people who, say, eat fatty foods. Yeah its unhealthy, but it tastes good or is enjoyable in some way. Personally, I’d rather eat good food my whole life and die a couple years early than live off lettuce and egg whites or something.
Hell, just about anything fun takes years off your life anyway. 
I would guess that most folks start smoking at a fairly young age when they feel indestructible and where they get the benefits now and the costs much, much later. Most teenagers have no idea what an addiction is and think it couldn’t possibly happen to them.
Sure, some people quit smoking, but look at how many want to quit and cannot. Add in the benefits cited above and it’s not so hard to understand why some people start and many don’t quit.
I don’t smoke nor do I advocate smoking but I do understand why people do it.
Beating off relaxes me but I’m not about to do it in public.
Plus if smoking tastes good, why isn’t there tobacco flavored ice cream? There’s coffee ice cream and coffee has to be the foulest thing people consume on a daily basis. Mmm, tobacco and coffee neopolitan ice cream.
What gets me, is where on earth did the idea come from to begin with? Who the hell was the guy who picked up a bunch of random leaves and lit them up and started sucking back the smoke? Did he try several different ones before finding one he “couldnt live without”? Maple leaves? Oak? Corn? And how did he convince the world’s second smoker to try it out - “Here, really, breathe this smoke in…go on…try it!”
Its kind of like eggs. Who said “Hey, lets crack this open and eat the insides!” ?!?!
Crazy crazy people.
Eating eggs probably came from watching other animals deriving nutrition from eating eggs.
I seriously doubt American Indians found bear and eagle shivering outside a stand of evergreens in a cloud of smoke muttering about how life sucks as a predator before throwing their filters on the ground because their break was over
Sadly, I would have this for breakfast EVERY DAY if I could get my grubby little paws on it.
malkavia
I would too, and my smoke of choice is Menthol. I think mine would also have that nice minty-flavor. ha ha
Add chocolate chips to this, and we have one tasty delight.
raisinbread
You sound bitter & tense! Have a smoke! :rolleyes:
(hee hee hee)
It also is a great excuse to take breaks from studying/work. If you’re goal oriented, it is a great way to divide up your time: “Okay, I’m going to read 50 more pages and then pop outside for a cig.”