By Danielle Nedivi
China by babasteve
It’s a question that we have all wondered about at some point. No matter if we are active users, casual dabblers, or outside observers- the mystery confounds in all contexts: why do people smoke cigarettes? Today, virtually everyone in the United States knows that smoking is bad. School programs, public service ads, flyers, doctors- even the cigarette boxes themselves- have drilled that into our brains incessantly enough. Yellow teeth, wrinkles, short breath, not to mention heart disease, lung disease, cancer- the list is seemingly endless. And yet, despite all of the well-known detrimental consequences, smoking is still very much a prevalent activity throughout the US, with the young generations just as much as the old.
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 3,500 people younger than 18 try their first cigarette every single day, and 1,100 others become regular daily smokers. About one-third of these kids will later die from a smoking-related disease. Considering that we all know about this deadly effect, why try that fateful first cigarette in the first place? The answers vary from person to person, but overall they tend to cover the same ground. Some studies have shown social influences from peers to be a major cause. Powell (2005) showed that moving a high-school student from a school where no children smoked to a school where one quarter of the youths smoked would increase the probability that he or she smoked by about 14.5%. Overall, based on 2007 data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 20% of high school students smoke. Many prefer not to feel left out or appear antisocial by not taking risks or trying new things, and they are willing to compromise their health to achieve that crucial sense of belonging. The health-deteriorating factor of cigarettes is too elusive and vaguely far off to feel critical- if anything, their immediate effects are mostly positive.
Smoking provides many enticements on top of its well-advertised drawbacks. Cigarettes stimulate receptor sites for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and provide a short term boost in dopamine levels. The results can be a temporary yet immediate calm and solace to a smoker . They can also render potentially awkward moments such as breaks from conversation natural (Dichter, 1947). They provide a smoky, mature voice and a feeling of sophistication and nonchalance. That society has brought many to believe that smoking is “cool” does not help matters. In media from films to books to songs, from GQ photo spreads to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” the smoker is usually presented as an alluring rebel worth striving to imitate. “Chain smoking” and “clove cigarettes” have become unpredictably glorified terms. At least at the moment, the image of the slightly neurotic, jaded, risk-taking smoker is trendy, and people will go far to emulate it. Even in college, where we believe students are not only more intelligent and mature but also less impressionable, cigarettes still appear all over the place and incite a mystique the influence of which is difficult to shake off, even for those who had successfully avoided the offender thus far (Reed, 2006) .
These are fine reasons for the first cigarette, but why do people continue to the third, and tenth, until they have developed an iron habit so difficult to break off that many people simply give up trying? Starting early is a recipe for long-term addiction- and addiction is undoubtedly the main culprit to blame for the continuous use of cigarettes. Nicotine tricks the brain synapses to believe that they are accepting acetylcholine, and eventually they stop producing the real neurotransmitter of the same effect to avoid overload. However, this causes the body to be dependent on nicotine, and whenever a smoker is deprived of cigarettes for too long, the body begins to experience withdrawal symptoms. By the time the smoker has more or less consciously reached this stage, he or she is hooked and will have serious difficulty dropping the addiction.
Despite all of the bad news, the fact is that smoking has been on the decline. Data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) indicates that the prevalence of current cigarette use in high schools has declined from 36.4% in 1997 to 21.9% in 2003, and has remained stable as of 2007. However, not too much comfort can be derived from this, because this prevalence had jumped from 27.5% in 1991 to 36.4% in 1997 before (with similar results among adults). Smoking trends are clearly not very stable, and a turn-around showing resurging cigarette popularity can happen again any time.
References:
Dichter, E. (1947) Why Do We Smoke Cigarettes? Originally published in The Psychology of Everyday Living. Retrieved 5 Mar. 2009 from Smoking Sides <http://smokingsides.com/docs/whysmoke.html>.
Kane, A. M. (2009, January 9). If Smoking is Bad for You, Who Still Does It? Retreived from CNN.com
<http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/09/who.still.smokes/index.html>.
Office on Smoking and Health, Div of Adolescent and School Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC (2008, June 27). Cigarette Use Among High School Students — United States, 1991–2007. Retreived 5 Mar. 2009 from <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5725a3.htm>.
Powell, L. M. (2005) The Importance of Peer Effects, Cigarette Prices and Tobacco Control Policies for Youth Smoking Behavior. Journal of Health Economics (24) 950-68.
Reed, M. B. (2006) The Relationship Between Alcohol Use and Cigarette Smoking in a Sample of Undergraduate College Students. Addictive Behaviors 32, 449-64.
Centers for Disease Control (2009) Smoking & Tobacco Use. Retrieved from <http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/
data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/youth_tobacco.htm>.
Watson, N. A. “Filthy or Fashionable? Young People’s Perceptions of Smoking in the Media.” Health Education Research. Oct. 2003. Oxford University Press. 5 Mar. 2009<http://her.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/5/554>.
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As a college student, I have first hand knowledge and experience with cigarettes and their allure. From D.A.R.E. classes in elementary school to the Truth campaigns on TV and billboards, anti-smoking propaganda is everywhere; however, college students seem to be a demographic with one of the highest smoking rates. In my opinion, there are many reasons for this. First of all, the image. “Cool” scenes of celebrities at the clubs smoking cigarettes and subliminal messaging in movies gives students a glamorized impression of smoking. Also, alcohol. People tend to have a few beers and suddenly have an overwhelming urge to smoke a cigarette, even if they aren’t smokers. With students partying one, two, or three times a week, smoking significantly increases during the weekend. Finally, many people use smoking as a tool for social interactions. If someone asks you for a “light” or if they can “bum a smoke,” a unspoken understanding is achieved by both members in the interchange and a temporary friendship is created. While I don’t think the college environment promotes lifelong smokers, it certainly contains many incentives for casual smokers to bond with one another over cigarettes.
Comment by Sarah Morrison — September 29, 2009 @ 11:07 pm
Synapses from nicotine in the brain lead to decreased acetylcholine production over time, so smokers do not get the rush of energy that acetylcholine produces without the nicotine on which they have become dependent. Tobacco companies have funded studies looking at the ability to complete a simple task by active smokers compared to smokers who have not had any nicotine for an extended period of time. Because active smokers have more energy from their recent intake of nicotine, they are able to complete these tasks more efficiently. For this reason, tobacco companies use these studies as cited scientific evidence that cigarettes enhance energy and alertness. Obviously, there is much bias in this evidence, as it does not consider the abilities of non-smokers. For some people, however, it may be enough to justify the habit.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/9704.php
Comment by 105 Student — October 4, 2009 @ 2:33 pm
In a response to a question posted on the Time’s Science Q&A, C. Claiborne Ray, an editor for the The New York Times, argues that nicotene is not the most addictive drug. Citing current evidence done by Jack E. Henningfield, a researcher for the National Institute on Drug Abuse studied patterns of use, death rates and and dependence of both drugs and found both are highly addictive yet evidence does not show nicotine is more addictive than cocaine.
Comment by 105 student — October 11, 2009 @ 4:45 pm
As has been previously discussed and shown, there are a seemingly endless number of reasons for smoking and continuing to smoke. There are obvious social incentives for smoking and the effect that nicotine has on the body makes it hard to break the habit. In addition, there are physical properties of cigarettes that fascinate and compel smokers, and are part of what encourages them to continue smoking. There seems to be a link between cigarettes and time, for as a cigarette slowly burns away, time seems to pass quickly. In a 1947 article from The Pyschology of Everyday Living that explores the motives for smoking cigarettes, Ernest Dichter (http://smokingsides.com/docs/whysmoke.html) suggested that cigarettes give the smoker something to do, and quells any feelings of impatience. Dichter also proposed that the smoke represents a physical manifestation of the smoker, as it fulfills the human tendency to “make things”. Smoke is also something mystical and mysterious, and many people just enjoy observing it. Finally, Dichter made the argument that a new pack of cigarettes offers smokers a feeling of satisfaction, as it “signifies that one is provided for”. The physiological motives for smoking cigarettes are obvious, but there are also subtle pyschological elements to cigarettes that compel smokers to continue their habit.
Comment by Ross Macklin — October 11, 2009 @ 7:57 pm
I think another interesting aspect of this is that part of society has become desensitized to anti-smoking media. From a very young age kids are lectured about the consequences of smoking and it could be that all the facts and statistic just loose their meaning. There have been so many anti-smoking campaigns that it becomes very difficult to approach things from a fresh perspective.
What I think is the worst part of this is that since the consequences of smoking take longer to appear than the initial calm/high they give, cigarettes become the gateway for other harmful habits. Teens who smoke are 3 times more likely to drink alcohol, 8 times more likely to smoke marijuana, and 22 times more likely to use cocaine. (http://www.smoking-facts.net/Teen-Smoking-Facts.html) Teens might think that since the effects of smoking aren’t showing up, the effects of other even more harmful substances won’t either. Perhaps the way to get teens to decrease their smoking habits it to warn them about the other dangerous paths it may lead too.
Comment by Maria Zapata — October 12, 2009 @ 5:52 pm
I can see how it would be easy to get hooked not only physiologically, but also psychologically. In addition to the rewarding release of dopamine caused by stimulation of the brain’s pleasure centers, smokers also receive the psychological reward of social acceptance. Furthermore, the reward of social acceptance serves as positive reinforcement of the behavior of smoking while any social alienation as a result of not smoking would serve as negative punishment. According to the Law of Effect, this would increase the frequency of the behavior of smoking.
Comment by Kris Adkins — October 13, 2009 @ 9:45 pm
I have to agree with Maria. It would be interesting to study if the “early and often” exposure to D.A.R.E. programs through middle and high school actually desensitized their audience.
I know I’ve seen countless tarred lungs and livers with cirrhosis. I walked away from the lecture on how to just “Say No!” shocked and moved, but after a few times of hearing the same slogans, it was more socially acceptable to act nonchalant and make fun of the message.
It’s a thesis/antithesis situation. We hear every few weeks in middle school that cigarettes are bad, and then “health” class becomes a running joke. TV commercials like the “Above the Influence” (http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/the-ads/) campaign came out, and those too become part of the joke. Maybe these constant warnings are actually working for the tobacco companies. People rebel against what they feel are constraints, living a drug-free life being one of those.
Overexposure to scare tactics and cheesy slogans in combination with paradoxical treatment of smoking in the media may have desensitized our generation, making the drive to smoke both social and physiological. Maybe it’s this double whammy of desensitization to anti-smoking literature that makes cigarette usage so deadly—it becomes a societal pressure as well as a physiological one.
Comment by Arianna Gass — October 16, 2009 @ 10:06 pm
Another reason kids seem to smoke is that they don’t see the initial problem with smoking cigarettes. Sure, someone can tell you that smoking kills and is unhealthy, but an ignorant teenager won’t care about what’s going to possibly happen to them in the far off future. They care about today, about the group of “cool” kids that are smoking on the side, about fitting in and the many other reasons offered by Danielle.
We never think bad things will happen to us. Why worry about what may occur when you can enjoy the now? That’s what we are told, to live in the moment. Kids do, they smoke and get addicted. And before they know it, it’s too late. And even 5-10 years down the line they may still be healthy. So why stop?
There are no truly awful initial side effects. It would be interesting if there was a way to effectively show young teenagers how harmful smoking is in its earlier stages.
Comment by Zach Nanus — October 27, 2009 @ 7:17 pm
I think the peer pressure related to smoking at an early age is also connected to environment. I grew up in an area where smoking wasn’t very prevalent among teenagers, and therefore didn’t even have the opportunity to smoke, let alone the desire to.
When I came to college, I was shocked at how many people smoked. I completely agree with Zach’s post above in that I’d like to see the outcome of a way that showed teens the early effects of smoking. Most kids don’t realize how quickly they can get addicted…they may care about their future but don’t see how what they do in the present can affect something so far off.
Comment by Jenna Kronenberg — November 6, 2009 @ 11:49 pm
Social smoking is common to see in many settings. In college, smoking may allow people to socialize more intimately while at parties. This is also common in the working world. Personally, I have noticed that stepping outside to smoke together is a common way that workers are able to bond. People enjoy this intimate setting because it allows them to open up to each other more than they could in larger groups.
People who partake in this social smoking may not ever smoke on their own. They do it solely to be more more sociable. Over time, however, people may become addicted to cigarettes, even if they do not ever smoke alone. This could eventually lead “social smokers” to become regular smokers. This addictive drug can have a stronger effect over people than they may realize, making it more dangerous.
Comment by 105 Student — November 29, 2009 @ 10:22 pm