Why do you think so many young people are getting addicted to cigarettes? What is the allure for them to start smoking? Is it a pathway to get rid of anxiety? Is it simply a way to look cool? Do you think it is really that cool? Is it because of peer pressure? If so, is there any alternative for dealing with the enormous amount of peer pressure many young people feel? Do they not understand the terrible health risks, or do they simply not care? Why are they willing to spend the money to feed a smoking habit?
Trevor J. (10:00)
19 comments:
It seems like today a lot of teenagers in high school have picked up smoking. Some teens may smoke because all of their friends do and they do not want to feel left out. Also, I think that a lot of teens start smoking to deal with their anxiety. I think another reason why a lot of young people smoke is because their parents might smoke and they want to know what it is like so they start smoking. The health risks do not really scare a lot of people and they do it anyway even if they are aware of the health risks that are caused by smoking.
Shelby Walker
Most people start smoking when they are in their teens and are addicted by the time they reach adulthood. Some have tried to quit but have returned to cigarettes because smoking is such a strong addiction. It is a habit that is very difficult to break. There are many different reasons why people smoke.
Three of the main reasons that young people smoke are to look mature, to be like their friends, and to experiment. Since teens see older people all around them smoking, especially their parents and relatives, they smoke to act older. If their friends or peers smoke, they may feel pressured into doing the same to be accepted. The last reason is the excitement of experimenting with something that is forbidden. Usually parents do not allow their under age teens to smoke. Therefore, smoking becomes very attractive. It is exciting to get cigarettes and sneak away to smoke without being caughtThe manner in which some tobacco companies advertise their cigarette brands also has a major influence on young people. Some adverts give the impression that smoking is sociable. You can make new friends by smoking or you can attract your ideal partner by looking sexy, sultry and smoky!
Giving kids information about the risks of smoking and chewing tobacco, and establishing clear rules and your reasons for them, can help protect them from these unhealthy habits. Parents can combat those draws and keep kids from trying — and getting addicted to — tobacco. Establish a good foundation of communication with your kids early on to make it easier to work through tricky issues like tobacco use.
Shane Rasor 1000
Well personaly to me its a way to cope with stress, i mean yes its a horrible habit that will probably cause me great a great deal of issues but it really helps me with stress.
Xeromy (8:00)
I think a lot of smoking is younger kids want to look cool or older so they are pure pressured into smoking. Everyone starts smoking for different reasons. For some people it is a pathway to avoid anxiety but for others anxiety is just their excuse for their addiction. For many smoking is to just look cool. I do not feel smoking is cool at all. Smoking a lot of times is due to pure pressure. If someone around you is peer pressuring you to smoke you probably shouldn't be around them at all because they are simply a bad influence. People think that the harms from smoking will never happen to them, or they will quit before it gets to that point. People spend money on it because they become addicted and rely on it for coping magnanimous.
Ian 10:00
I think younger people are getting addicted to cigarettes because they think it makes them look cool and because their friends do, so they give into peer pressure. Yes they help with coping with stress, but you're young you're a teenager, how much stress do you have to deal with? I do not find smoking "cool" at all. If anything i think it is disgusting. And if you ask me smoking is a major turn OFF.
Slade
I believe most people started smoking when they were young because they were being pressure into it and it's a common drug that helps you deal with stress more easily than a lot of items do. I also think that a lot of people are influence to smoking by their parents, due to them smoking their whole life and being around them while they are smoking. I don't think kids are doing it to look cool but just trying to fit into a certain group, which could make the young people feeling pressure from their peers. Sometimes I don't think people know what really are in cigarettes. I don't think people are educated enough to know about it. I think people are more educated in premarital sex than they are with smoking.
Kyle Ogle (Noon)
This is a hard one. I was the type of teenager that always did everything I was supposed to, yet, I tried smoking at the age of 17. It was to look cool at the time. I have quit many times since then for long periods of time and now I wish I didn't smoke. I have found that all people who are my age now want to quit, but now it is just so hard since we have been doing it for so long. DO NOT SMOKE if you don't. It is not an easy habit to break and it is one of the absolute WORST things you can do to your body. Even knowing this I still smoke, which makes me a hypocrite, but that is to show you how hard it will be to quit if you get started. And let's face it. Smokers are paying roughly about $6 a pack a day. This is ridiculous. Add it up per week, month, year then call me stupid too. And I will agree with you there too.
Some many people start smoking because they have friends that do and they want to fit in, maybe their friends pressure them into it, they think it makes them cool. There are so many reasons for a person to begin smoking. Others start because their family has smokers or they find it away to relieve stress and anxiety. People usually being smoking at a young age, it is a highly addictive habit. It is easy for some to quit smoking because they only do it rarely. Others have a much harder time to quit because they smoke a lot and for a long time. I started smoking because my roommates did, it was around all the time and hard not to join in. I feel like it is a terrible, deadly and a disgusting habit. I myself quit smoking for a year and it was and still is the hardest thing to do. The risks are extreme and everyone is aware of them. The quitting is the hardest part and I think that’s why people avoid the health issues.
J.McWhorter 10:00
I know when I was a teenager, simply seeing other people smoking and kn owing that it was forbidden brought forth an allure all its own. I fortunately did not stick with it. My oldest son is 20 and he smokes. I believe it was a social thing his peers did and he started as well. Now he feels he wants to quit but he cant.
Angela Cole
I think a lot of young people are getting more and more addicted to smoking because more people are smoking in general. I think that everyone tries something once and the most common thing is ciggarettes. Alot of people dont think it is addicting, but it really is. Smoking is a coping mechanism. You're stressed? smoke, you feel anything, smoke. A lot of kids do start smoking because it's what everyone else is doing, and you can tell who really enjoys smoking, whose addicted and who is just doing it for attention. Some people are destined to become a smoker. If your parents smoke odds are you will too and thats why i started smoking, i didnt do it too look cool because i didnt even tell my friends for a long time or i was embarrassed to smoke in front of them. I know that my friends didnt smoke until they saw me doing it, which is pretty pathetic. I do not encourage smoking whatsoever. I think some of it is peer pressure and i think its also the society we live in today. I knew smoking was bad for you, and for years i told myself i wasnt addicted and i could stop whenever i wanted too..which is the typical thing for an addict to say, but i didnt want to stop because then i'd be bored... I smoked for about 6 years...i turn 19 tomorrow so you do the math and the only thing that saved my life was the fact that i got pregnant with my son Bentley. I'm a month and a half off squares and i will never pick up a pack again. I even got my hubby to stop smoking too. it isnt easy because they really are addicting. I dont see how you arent aware of the health risks because they have 500 smoking commercials everyday of what it does to people. Now they are amping it up and showing you things they never did before like having your fingers fall off, you toes, your legs, very terrible things. People just think it wont happen to them, but thats exactly what the people who it happened to thought as well. It isnt worth it if you want to smoke pick up an electtric one their healthier and safer.
kristina young
I made it all the way through high school not smoking. I didn’t pick up a pack until I moved to the U.S. I smoke cigarettes for a wealth of reasons (or excuses, some might say). For me, it is a great social tool. I can walk into the back of a bar and instantly spark up a conversation with a smoker (no pun intended!), because that’s what’s accepted. To contrast this, it is a lot harder to walk up to a group of people inside and introduce yourself. Nicotine itself is also an extremely potent anti-depressant. I spoke to a doctor a few days ago who told me if nicotine didn’t have the negative side effect of blood vessel constriction, she would use it as a go-to drug for all types of depression. Cigarettes are also a great stress reliever, and for someone who works a professional job full time, as well as full time school and trying to micro-manage a social life, cigarettes are certainly life-savers. The irony of this is obviously apparent, but I won’t quit cigarettes until after college. They are simply too useful.
Zach Daniels
Most people that are addicted to cigarettes are only addicted because they started at a very young age. I think they they only start at a young age just to be cool.A lot of people I know who smoke claim that smoking calms their nerves or eases their troubles but they are over 18. Teenagers tend to do a lot of monkey see monkey do, it's all about following the "in" crowd for them. Smoking cigarettes is a terrible habit to pick up I know because my mom smokes and I hate it. Teenagers have no business smoking point blank. Health risk suck after picking up this terrible habit.
-Chelsea W (10:00)
I thank God that i do not have any habits! Especially smoking! I dont smoke AT ALL!! I dont see how people do it. Especially these young people. Not only do they smell, make ur teeth yellow, costs a lot,and causes cancer, but it makes you look stupid! I cant stand seeing people smoke cigarettes! especially females or the people who will be standing outside in the cold just to smoke! UGK! I am a young mother of 3, and a full time student...if any one knows a bout stress, being depressed, and all that other stuff I SURE DO! but i wont turn to smoking. I wish that these young people would find some other way to deal with their problems. . because smoking is not going to solve them. Well, i heard that the nicotine does something for them, but that's just momentarily..what ever the problem they are facing is still going to be there once the "high" is gone! I pray that my kids don't experiment with cigarettes at any point in their life. I know a lot of young people do it to try and fit in or be cool, but being a follower is not cool at all. I can only imagine the amount of money would save if they cut back smoking cigarettes! I'm too stingy with my $!! Instead of buying a pack of cigarettes, i'd rather buy me a MEAL!! lol. I dont see how they can know the risks and dangers of s moking, yet they still do it. Okay...i guess i can, because im sure there's plenty of things i do which i know i shouldnt be doing! but knowing that u're at risk of CANCER and many other health problems? nope! ill pass! my mother and father passed from cancer (not related to smoking) but its still nothing i want to get involved in. I see my brothers and sisters who smoke, and its crazy! the addiction is horrible. it's like they will go crazy without them, spending their LAST money on packs of cigarettes! i couldnt do it!!
Kiara Dudley
I believe it has a lot to do with people thinking it is what "older" people do, or at least more mature. I think they believe it makes them look like they are more mature in the end. but also it could be because of stress, it is tough times out there and smoking is a stress reliever for a lot of people.
I think that they understand it's bad for them but for a lot of people, especially teenagers they have the attitude that never will ever bad happen to them, they don't realize how unhealthy they can get later in life.
Alec Pettyjohn
There is no excuse for smoking. A lot of people smoke because it relieves stress. However, I don't believe the "benefits" add up to all the health risks and money that it wastes. If you smoke because it relieves your stress, try a different mode of stress relief. There are countless other ways of relieving stress besides smoking. Try painting, working out, playing an instrument, or doing yoga. There are so many other, more productive ways of relieving stress. I think most smokers realize that what they're doing is harmful, but they ignore that part of their brain, and insist that they need cigarettes. Smoking is the most disgusting habit a person could have. It ruins your lungs, it causes cancer, it smells awful, it is completely unproductive, and it costs ridiculous amounts of money. People who smoke despite the health risks just aren't doing the smart, responsible for their bodies.
~Megan Strom
In my opinion, young people are seeing as smoking a cigarette would be a great way to help with their anxiety. Though, we do have to admit that many also are in the stage where they are asked to smoke and just because they do not want to say no and look stupid in front of their friends, they say yes. This proves, that young people do it to not feel left out and to them maintain their “what they call friends”. Though I want people to think that if some peer pressures you to do something so you could be cool, are they really considered your friends? Last time I checked, real friends are there with you to help you and not force you to do something you do not want to do. I think that if a young person feels peer pressure from a buddy, then the best thing to do is to get away from that person because that person is doing no good at all to you. I also think that if young people smoke is because they are not considering the risks, all they think of I that they like it, to them is helpful at times of anxiety and they look cool. They are in the age where they do not care about anything and are not responsible.
Angelita T. (8:00)
I am not a smoker but all of my friends and family smoke cigaretts. I often ask them a lot what do they get out of it, the same answer remains... stress relief. It's some kind of stimulator for them and in some way relieves stree. I have NO smoking habbits and to see that I have friends that would spend thier last ten bucks on a pack, is something that I want to play no part it. I think that people smoke cigaretts because of peer pressure and because they've seen one of their friends doing it.
TIA
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