Feng Lu 1

Huilin Feng Lu

Professor Bergholtz

ENC 1102

1 November 2023

Vaping and Smoking Among Adolescents

1. Introduction

Smoking has been around for a long time, and it is still going around in the world today.

Throughout history, people have smoked various products. Most of the products emerged from

the sales of tobacco from the older days to the sales of nicotine in the present day (Reynolds

1540). Adolescents and young adults are usually the ones who are the most vulnerable to the

concept of smoking and vaping. Hence, it is why in recent years, many adolescents have evolved

and begun to vape instead. Vaping has become appealing to them because of the nicotine in their

vape devices. Different brands of vape pens contain various types of flavors for adolescents to

choose from, which fuel their addiction even further (May 2).

Smokers need to be reminded that when they are smoking, they are also putting people

around them at risk. Some of them might not know this, but when they are smoking, they are

exposing secondhand smoke to everyone around them. Too much exposure to secondhand smoke

can cause different types of health issues, such as cardiovascular diseases (i.e. high blood

pressure and heart attack) and respiratory diseases (i.e. asthma and bronchitis) (May 3). Some

smokers do know this fact, but they choose to ignore it or refuse to acknowledge it. Adolescents

still do not know the consequences that smoking or vaping can have on their physical health. If

they do, then they are also choosing to ignore or acknowledge this fact. Thus, in this research
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paper, I will be answering the question “How do adolescents and young adults on the app TikTok

respond to videos that glorify smoking and vaping?”

2. Methods

For this research, I used the social media app TikTok to collect data. Within this app,

there are many features where a user can explore countless video content. One of the ways to

explore the app is by utilizing the ‘Discover’ page and using the search bar at the top of the page

to search for words or phrases for innumerable videos to pop up. I searched for the terms

‘vaping’, ‘teens vaping’, ‘smoking’, and ‘teens smoking’ to look at different videos and comment

sections to gather my data and analyze them. These terms are similar, but there are clear

differences between each one.

By going through the videos’ comment sections, I was able to read the different thoughts

on smoking/vaping and read some of the teenagers’ experiences with smoking/vaping. It seems

that there are mainly three perspectives of what adolescents and young adults think about the

concept of smoking/vaping: negative and degrading comments about it, glorifying and

encouraging it, or they know that it is bad but will continue to do it. While looking through the

comments, I also clicked on their profiles and found out that the majority of them are teenagers.

Many of them have shared their experiences with smoking/vaping online. They talked about their

journeys and how they became addicted to vaping either through a video or writing out a

comment about it.

3. Results

In this section, I will be going over the findings from my research on the app TikTok. I

will first present the glorifying and encouraging comments and analyze them. Then, I will do the
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same with the negative and degrading comments. Lastly, I will showcase comments from those

who know that smoking/vaping is bad but will continue to do it. All of these comments are found

from the four mentioned searched terms I used for this paper: vaping, teens vaping, smoking, and

teens smoking. All comments will be quoted anonymously.

a.) Glorifying and Encouraging Comments

I first looked into video content about smoking to see what adolescents and young adults

have to say about this concept. These are the comments that glorify and encourage

smoking/vaping.

1.) “17 is the best age fr esp when u got a job wit no bill to pay gas is never a supply

problem”

2.) “started at 12 been going strong for decades now. no regrets.”

3.) “bruuuuu started when lemme see i think 12 now 17 faded rn faded tmr faded

everyday till i’m gone”

4.) I’m 16 I never run out of shit I pay for all my own gas and guarantee I get sum of the

best prices you’ll ever Fuckin see”

5.) “live your own life, don’t let some guy on the internet tell you how to live your life”

These comments were found under a TikTok video with 3.3 million views where the creator was

listing ages that people should never begin smoking/vaping and expressing their concerns for

people who did begin smoking at a young age, such as 12 or 13. With these comments, it can be

shown that some adolescents and young adults do not care about their well-being and physical

health. They are even glorifying the idea of smoking/vaping and encouraging young teens to do

the same. Since adolescents and young adults are easily influenced by the internet, they are at
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high risk of being exposed to actual smoking or vaping products by those surrounding them who

may have the supplies, which would lead them to want to take their first hit due to their curiosity

(Forsyth 368). The comments showed that they do not seem to regret anything at all, so it

encourages other young teens to just try it and believe that smoking/vaping is most likely not

“that bad.”

b.) Negative and Degrading Comments

I searched for more videos to collect data. The following comments are viewed from a

negative perspective.

6.) “Why do u all want to breath something else then air do you all realize this is not cool

and just bad for u”

7.) “Having to smoke something before you can operate is crazy”

8.) “Man don’t u just love flavored air that kills u”

9.) “the damage to vapers lungs is incredibly alarming.. please throw those vapes away.

Its young people in respiratory failure.”

10.) “My lungs are laughing at urs”

11.) “Next challenge! How long will your lungs last?”

These comments were found in two different videos. The first video showed how this person

needs to hit their vape first thing in the morning to get their day going. The second video showed

this person doing vape tricks. From these comments, we can see that many adolescents and

young adults are looking down on smokers and vapers. They are constantly degrading and

making fun of them for their corrupted and black lungs. Teenagers already have a negative
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mental image of smokers and believe that they are delinquents (Luke 199 & 202), so these

comments further prove this point.

c.) Knowing smoking/vaping is bad but will continue to do it

The following comments are from adolescents and young adults who know that

smoking/vaping is bad for them, but they cannot seem to stop it.

12.) “Yes, smoking is bad, but you’ll know when you’re in that situation”

13.) “ “I would never smoke, it’s so gross. But look at where I am now with just 13 years

of life” same and I stopped my dad from doing it”

14.) “believe it or not vape is bad but also very good the good is that it’s a coping

mechanism and but it’s bad cause it’s addictive”

15.) “remembering the time my mom caught me smoking at 14 and took all my stuff but

then i went downstairs and it was sitting right on the counter no one in sight so I took

it back and never got caught with it then a month later mom asked me to smoke with

her”

16.) “when I caught my teen siblings smoking but agreed to stay quiet as long as they

always share with sissy”

These comments were found in different videos. However, they illustrate the fact that

many adolescents and young adults do know that smoking/vaping is bad for them, but a lot of the

time they help with their stress, calm their anxiety, and keep their inner thoughts quiet. They do

not necessarily encourage others to smoke/vape, but the concept of it is viewed as normal and is

a socially accepted behavior since everyone has their own way of relieving their stress (Watson

565). Youth smoking/vaping can be attributed to several factors with the main influences being
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their friends, peers, or family members (Groom 2). In comments #13, #15, and #16, they

mentioned a few of their family members smoking. This goes to further show that hanging out

with people you see often can have a great impact on your life and follow in their footsteps as

well.

4. Conclusion

In conclusion, both my primary and secondary sources helped to answer my research

question and showed how adolescents and young adults responded to TikTok videos that glorify

smoking and vaping. People will look at you from different lights and perspectives. There will be

some who look down on you or encourage you as well as those who simply do not care what you

do with your life because they know that there are innumerable reasons as to why someone

would start smoking/vaping.

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Works Cited

Forsyth, Susan R., et al. “The Effect of the Internet on Teen and Young Adult Tobacco Use: A

Literature Review.” Journal of Pediatric Health Care, vol. 27, no. 5, 2013, pp. 367-76,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedhc.2012.02.008.

Groom, Allison L., et al. “The Influence of Friends on Teen Vaping: A Mixed-Methods

Approach.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 18,

no. 13, 2021, p.6784-, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18136784.

Luke, Douglas, et al. “Teens’ Images of Smoking and Smokers.” Public Health Reports (1974),

vol. 116, no. 1_suppl, 2001, pp. 194-202, https://doi.org/10.1093/phr/116.S1.194.

May, Brandon. “As Vaping Among Teens, Young Adults Rapidly Increases, So Do Health

Concerns.” Psychiatry Advisor, 19 Aug. 2023, p. NA, https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?

p=AONE&u=orla57816&id=GALE|A761519074&v=2.1&it=r

Reynolds, Matthew J., et al. “The Emergence of the Tobacco 21 Movement From Needham,

Massachusetts, to Throughout the United States (2003-2019).” American Journal of

Public Health (1971), vol. 109, no. 11, 2019, pp. 1540-47,

https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305209.

Watson, N. A., et al. “Filthy or Fashionable? Young People’s Perceptions of Smoking in the

Media.” Health Education Research, vol. 18, no. 5, 2003, pp. 554-67,

https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyf039.