Vaping Among Teenagers

We all know that society these days is desperately trying hard to make innovations that could bring or raise a person’s confidence. In relation to that many different trends came at different seasons and these trends got viral so fasts with the help of different social networks. Even parents find it a hard time coping up with the demand list of their teenage kids. Snapchats, new gadgets or at least an upgraded cellphone model, dance crazes, new clothes and even the use of tobacco cigarettes are only a few of it. But, one that greatly struck the whole society including huge industries is the increasing use of e-cigarettes or vaporizers commonly known as vaping among teenagers particularly in college. The use of e-cigarettes has reached to various

First, it has become a novelty. According to Sherry Emery, a senior research scientist currently examining youth and adult smoking behaviors at the University of Illinois at Chicago, teenagers vape because it is a novelty. By that she means it is the nature of teenagers to explore and engage in new stuff, besides, what they thought about it is fun and exciting (Huffingtonpost, 2015). The substantia/ventral segmental area or SN/VTA, a part of the brain, is responsible in responding to novel stimuli and is the major “novelty center” of the brain (Cooper, 2013). In the survey we conducted, 28% of the respondents, who are of random courses and years, thought that people vape because they want to try something new. It is common among us that we conform to new stuff or everything new in general. When something comes out and becomes a fad then later on becomes a trend, many people then will try to obtain them. An increase in dopamine (a reward chemical) levels, in the context of novelty, resulted in animal studies when brains reacted to novelty and this increase in hormone is what causes us to want explorations and seek rewards from it (Cooper, 2013). It is inevitable that our eyes get attracted to anything that is new and unique. New hair colors, new clothes and new places to venture are only a few of those new. We cannot even deny the fact that, without being conscious, we are always pulled by it (Cooper, 2013). Professor Christine Batiles of Silliman University said that the sociology or the behavior behind the fad is because of the behavior specifically called “Collective Behavior”. “Collective behavior is a term sociologists use to refer to a miscellaneous set of behaviors in which large numbers of people engag” (Barkan, 2012). “More specifically, collective behavior is relatively spontaneous and relatively unstructured behavior by large numbers of individuals acting with or being influenced by other