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Vapes Ruined Cigarette Culture

Many a time, I have been in the bathroom in high school, and people are vaping in there. Do whatever you want I don’t really care; but there’s something special about these bathroom vape breaks. And that is the community that comes along with vaping…

What?

You walk into the bathroom, vapeless, and you’re stressed out, having a bad day or whatever. And some person that you’ve never talked to is vaping. “Yo I can hit that?” “Of course, bro.” I’ve always been jealous of this kind of community that vapers have amongst themselves. It’s really something. I feel like before vapes, there was a similar community among cigarette smokers. In a way, the convenience of vapes have ruined this culture.

Words From my Mother Who I Love Very Much

I texted my mom and I asked her about this sense of community amongst cigarette smokers when she was in college or just in general. “Smoking was like an invitation to approach and strike up a conversation. You’re both sitting there, you know you’ve got 10 minutes or so, just make small talk. I used to deliberately not carry a lighter so I could ask guys to use theirs. When you have to leave the room, you are putting yourself in the outside. By smoking, you physically remove yourself from the party, the concert, whatever. So when you see another smoker, you know they get it, too. Even if all you talk about is how much you hate smoking, how expensive, it is still a small moment of instant connection.”

They Get it Too

Back in the day before vapes in like 2014, there really was a sense of connection, of bonding among smokers that has been lost today. This is how I see it. Like my mom said, you physically remove yourself from wherever you are… you go away from the rest of the people because you want to smoke a cigarette, and you would find other people who feel the same way that you do. Now, you go to any bar and everyone has their vape with them; there isn’t any need to step out. Vaping ruined cigarette culture, and I don’t really know what I’m talking about but it all makes sense to me. Not that cigarette culture is anything to be proud of, but at least there was a culture. I started this piece being jealous of vape culture but now I look at vape culture as something that killed a real way to make connections or bond with another person. There’s probably real people out there that ended up getting married because they shared a cigarette when they were strangers, or best friends that just happened to meet because they were smoking 10 feet away from each other. Vaping made nicotine addiction easy. And it’s a bigger overarching problem of easiness in this generation that I have a problem with already. We don’t have to try anymore… and it’s led to a generation of complacency, my least favorite thing to be. Complacency is what kills motivation…

Why does this matter at all?

It doesn’t really. I just hate being in the digital age. A vape is just a digital cigarette. I wish I was ten years older. Everything is too easy now. LOL I’m complaining about my life being easy. What a positive guy I am!! Nobody has to try anymore. Everyone uses AI to get through school. I don’t even have to go to class. I miss something that I never even experienced. And that’s not fair to all the people who did experience it because they would probably kill to have it so easy. I’m going to Bible study tomorrow. I’m going to tell everyone to check out my website. If you are from Bible study, thank you for reading. It means everything and nothing less.

Why does sex sell and how do we fix it?

This is a screenshot from my YouTube feed.

I was intrigued by the fact that the thumbnail of this YouTube short had the word sex in it. I mean, it’s only a HIMYM clip and it has over 4 million views. But it got me thinking about why the word sex is in the thumbnail.

Sex and Drugs

These two things own the world. Sex and drugs are the two things that people willingly do knowing the potential longterm effects of their actions. I know plenty of people who had children in high school because, clearly, the allure of having sex is more powerful than the thought of being a parent. Now is this all the way true, of course not. No one thinks it’s going to happen to them. In the same way, drugs are an ever growing epidemic. I asked my sister who’s in third grade if she has ever heard of Terrance the RAT (Reject All Tobacco) and she said no. I know people whose lives have been ruined because of drugs. Some people just can’t say no.

It doesn’t help that these two subjects are often glorified in pop culture; music, movies. If you want to be cool, you have to have as much sex as possible and do as many drugs as possible.

So what are we supposed to do about it?

Well, I don’t think there is much TO do. I mean, in a capitalistic economy, whatever makes the most money will reign supreme. It’s just kind of gross. Especially because a lot of people that clicked on that video are probably kids. Who else is watching a YouTube short about HIMYM? The solution has to do with the kids. I don’t know, the internet is a crazy place. It also has a lot to do with the post-COVID content boom. When COVID hit, everyone was on social media, which means it was easier to be a content creator, therefore leading to content over-saturation. THEY ARE ALL ATTENTION MERCHANTING. That is a term I learned in my Jour 101 class. Where did the ethics go?

That wasn’t a solution.

I don’t have a solution. But I think something needs to happen. It’s like a dopamine boost when you think of sex; is this just a human problem? Humans will always want what they want. And I believe that is okay. You can’t control your wants.

“No matter what it was or is or will become, you always want the things that you want.” – Mach-Hommy