In “Effects of Social Media on Adolescents’ Willingness and Intention to Use E-Cigarettes: An Experimental Investigation” Erin Vogel et. al argue that the manipulated use and exposure of social media on adolescents leads to them wanting to use e-cigarettes.

In their study, they gathered participants that ranged from ages 13-18 and noted their thoughts and feelings after seeing posts on social media. When looking through the different posts, there were four different categories that helped them stand out. Those were: peer generated, advertisement, light exposure, and heavy exposure. With this study, they found a greater intensity of social media use in daily life was significantly associated with greater willingness, more positive e-cigarette attitudes, greater perceptions of e-cigarette use as normative, and lower danger perceptions and was unrelated to perceptions of reduced harm.

Although this seems dangerous, it has been going on around us for so long. If I really thought about I could probably come up with a few ways as to how social media has allowed children to have this yearning for using e-cigarettes. I personally was never swayed by ads or kids in high school vaping and all that kind of stuff, but it’s a shame to see how some people can be turned to something like this just based off some pictures or videos they’re seeing on social media. I think it’s something that some vaping companies have had to deal with legally (pretty sure Juul had to), and it should keep being highlighted just how much of an issue this is.