While e-cigarette manufacture, standardization, and regulation are topics being ferociously squabbled over by the various national and international regulatory health boards, a considerable chunk of the populace seems to be doing what they normally do in topics of extreme controversy – ignore the controversy and jump straight over that mess to do exactly what they please.
Welcome to the vaping community, where it’s cool to be dragging on e-liquid fueled smokeless electronic tubes.
What is vaping?
The word is a play on the term “Vaporizer” which is another name for the e-cigarettes. And the patrons of the practice of vaping label themselves ‘vapers’.
They are those who willingly eschew the traditional cigarette, with its archaic nicotine-powder rolled inside a barrel of paper, and choose to indulge their nicotine cravings with the new generation of electronic cigarettes.
The Vaping culture
In this electronic age, the formation of this subculture in cigarette smokers is not something that can be termed as all that unprecedented or unexpected. Where X-boxes are more beloved than human company, cell-phones have pretty much become practical extensions of a person’s arm and even old ladies on the block hop from one new gadget to the next and show-off their digitally forward, tech-savvy outlook to the world, an electronic cigarette was almost certainly guaranteed to get its cult following.
And despite the hue and cry surrounding it and the ominous warnings given out by the various health boards, it does not seem to be in any way detrimental to the public interest on it.
Places like Utah and Washington are actually opening shops which exclusively cater only e-cigarettes and take pride in their extensive array of designs. There are even vaper “collectors” on the market now, who collect the many unique designs in which e-cigarettes come out, and display them in their homes like one would collect stamps.
Celebs join the vaper community
While initially vaping culture seemed like a passing flight of fancy, a hobby for nicotine addicts and terminal smokers, the fact that many Hollywood stars are proudly turning ‘vapers’ makes you wonder if this nicotine gadget craze is here to stay.
Celebs can always be trusted to adapt to the next “it” thing and and point the rest of the world in the direction the tides of fashion are currently flowing towards. And if the present scenario is anything to go by, e-cigarettes seem to be the newest thing.
It’s not uncommon these days to go to gossip websites and spot your favorite Hollywood A-list celebrity doing their shopping while drawing on a trendy e-cig clasped stylishly between their fingers.
While it’s easy enough to dismiss grating advertisements where cheerful stars talk about their love for e-cigarettes and list facts on the merits of converting to the “vaping” generation, it’s harder to do ignore the phenomenon when more and more celebs are regularly photographed with this cool new nicotine device.
Goes to show, FDA controversy or not, endless debates over whether it’s a health-risk or a boon, the e-cigarette shall prevail.
And the e-cigarette loving vaping community is not going anywhere anytime soon.