Is Smoking Still "Cool?

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There is little doubt that one of the attractions drawing young people into smoking is
that it is/was perceived as being something that is “cool.” Conveying a sense of being
an activity that is associated with being more adult, being something that people in
the know do, being something that the in-crowd does, being something that is
viewed as demonstrating a rebellious attitude, smoking may be thought of as “cool.”
If everyone did it, than it would no longer be exclusive and no longer be viewed as
being so cool. There was a time when the act of smoking satisfied many of those
criteria. In the early 1960’s smoking was clearly viewed as being cool (at least to
some of us), something the “in-crowd” did, something that showed the smoker was
more adult, more independent, more of a rebel. Smoking was showcased by the
media, by the movies, by television, by its use by celebrities as being the province of
many people that young people especially, sought to emulate. Many of the heroes of
the movies and other entertainment venues smoked in the past much more than
today.

Is smoking still seen as cool today? Perhaps among some socioeconomic strata it
does retain some elements of “coolness," but for much of society today, even among
young people, smoking is not seen as such a cool thing to do any longer.

Clearly the turning point of the tide to counter smoking as being a cool activity, was
the Surgeon General’s Report of 1964. Although smoking was not seen as a healthy
activity in the fifties or early sixties, until the Surgeon Generals Report, there was no
official verification of its potentially debilitating and deadly consequences. Many
smokers knew it was not really good for them, but, few anticipated the avalanche of
dire health warnings associated with smoking that came out after that 1964 report.
This report was the stimulus that provided the initial impetus to start changing the
perception of smoking from being cool, to actually being seen as a stupid, worthless
and an uncool activity. What else aided this transformation and helped the US
incidence of smoking to fall from about 45% thirty years ago to around 21% today? It
was not just the physical warning of highly negative effects on physical health.

Another equally important factor was the increasing awareness and perception of
smoking as being a crutch for the weak to rely on and use as a tool to avoid dealing
with the social/emotional demons that smokers may try to deal with via their
smoking habit. That is, in today’s society, smoking is no longer seen as something
that smart, enlightened, mature, emotionally-healthy people engage in. There is a
growing recognition that smoking has no redeeming benefits, it is all pain, no gain. If
you ask any group of people today for a rational reason to start or continue to smoke,
very few will offer a rationale for the use of cigarettes or other smoking materials. It
is known now, what was much less understood 25 to 50 years ago, that the old
perception of smoking as a tool to help combat stress and relax the body, a benefit
cited by many in the past, is scientifically and medically untrue. Smoking contains,
among other things, nicotine, which is a highly recognized stimulant. When a person
smokes, while it may offer some initial psychological aid to promote relaxation and
“de-stressfication,” it actually does the opposite. Smoking very quickly raises our
pulse, raises our blood pressure, and physically stresses the body. Most people
understand this today. One of the few logical rationales for smoking was de-bunked
and most no longer see it as a valid reason to smoke.

Further, more potential smokers are learning today of some highly undesirable side
effects of smoking that were not recognized consequences until fairly recently.
Prominent among these is that smoking significantly increases the likelihood of
impotence, an important concern to almost all men (or women in sexual
relationships). Also, it is now known that smoking is detrimental to the ability to
conceive a child, which is also a major concern for those interested in having
children.

Another undeniable trend making smoking less cool is simply that accessibility to
smoking is greatly eroded by federal and state law and regulations banning smoking
from the workplace, most restaurants and even some public venues. Smokers today
are, if they are allowed to smoke anywhere on a corporate or other campus, are
relegated to huddling outdoors in inclement and unpleasant weather, furtively
smoking a cigarette like a common drug addict or criminal. All of this has greatly
aided the transformation of smoking from being a cool activity to one that is getting
more uncool all the time.

There is more to the transformation of smoking from being viewed by some as being
a cool activity to being seen by most as uncool today. There is a growing, but still
under-appreciated and under-promoted perception for smoking as having highly
negative consequences on the smoker’s attractiveness to the opposite sex. Many
more people see it as being uncool today, rather than cool. This is especially true by
non-smokers, as a deterrent to their viewing a person as a potential long-run mate
or even a short-run “hook-up.” Smoking for many in today’s society is a real turn-off
that is likely to diminish the smoker's appeal toe opposite sex to whom he/she wants
very much to be appealing, attractive and desirable.
There are two completely fundamental behavioral imperatives that drive the
thoughts and behavior of all humans. They are the instincts, baked into our DNA, for
self-preservation and to replicate our DNA, that is, ourselves in a sense, via our
offspring. Activities that are contrary to these behavioral imperatives usually are
avoided when they are recognized as being inconsistent with these goals. Smoking is
pretty clearly far more associated with being inconsistent with and counter to
imperative number two, replicating our DNA, which starts with courting and dating
and typically, ends in marriage and mating. The consequences of smoking on a
smoker’s physical, psychological and emotional health is totally negative and works
against the smoker's attractiveness to those he/she wishes to attract as friends and
as potential mates, or even, just a potential sexual conquest.

The emerging tidal wave of perception is moving smoking from being seen as cool, to
uncool is aided by its own momentum. As the incidence of smoking declines in the
general adult population, in the media, in entertainment outlets and among
celebrities, smoking is seen as less a normal and natural part of adult life. This is
especially true among those adults who have an inordinate and paramount
importance as role models for our youth. The less smoking is seen, the less normal
and everyday it is seen as being, and hence, the less it will be/can be seen as being
cool.

There is ample research and expert opinion to substantiate and support this premise
of smoking no longer being seen as a cool activity.

One website, tvtropes.org describes the Hollywood hero of old. The characters who
smoked were often seen as the rebel, the outcast, the “bad-boy,” that is they were
portrayed in a positive light. This imbued smoking with an association to something
that is cool. In fact, in the entertainment media, you rarely saw anyone suffer any
negative effects of smoking whether it was on their physical health, smoking over
the objections of others, or any other negative consequences. Smoking was
portrayed in positive fashion without any countervailing negatives. As the website
states, “in older media from before the Surgeon General's report on tobacco use,
smoking conveyed maturity, experience, and social acceptability,” i.e. it was the
essence of cool.

“Wholefamily.com,” in 2001 gave their case as to why smoking cannot any longer be
seen as being a cool thing to do. To paraphrase from their website, here are some of
the reasons shy smoking is not cool
* Everyone knows that smoking is terrible for your physical health, it is an
acknowledged killer.
* Smoking is not consistent with choosing to live life to the max, that is, living life as
fully as you can, dying prematurely, getting cancer, COPD, or emphysema is not cool
* Smoking may still be seen as a somewhat adult thing to do, but there are other
better things, one can do to be seen as, and, feel more adult, like exercise
self-control, exercising your free choice and being responsible
* Non-smokers find smoking to be a turn-off, it fouls the breath, stinks-up the hair
and ones clothes, makes kissing a drag-it is a filthy, dirty habit and everyone knows it

* Smoking makes the smoker a slave to their habit, making a lot of their behavior
based on cues and triggers outside of their conscious deliberate choice, this is not
cool

* Smoking is not cool, because it will disappoint your parents and many of your
friends who do not smoke (of course if this is your objective to shock and shake-up
these people, it may be useful to some in that regard)

* Taking over your own destiny and being in control of your own life-that’s cool this
website says, and, smoking greatly undermines this accomplishment

Another website, “health24.com” also had some interesting insights as to why

smoking is not cool:
* Smoking is an acknowledged killer
* “Cigarettes make your breath smell. Kissing after you’ve had a cigarette is almost
like licking out an ashtray.”
* Smoking makes it significantly more likely you will break a bone and after breaking,
healing is much slower.
“Smoking causes impotence. Smoking reduces peripheral vascular flow and the
blood flow necessary to attain an erection may become blocked.”
* Smoking even affects a person’s blood flow and circulation and can result in a
smoker having unusually cold feet or hands.
* Smoking yellows the skin and stains the teeth.
* There are easier and better ways to appear older, more mature, more adult-like.
* Smoking can give the smoker a perpetual cough, and wheezing sound that makes
the smoker look and sound older then he/she really is.
* Of course, do not forget that smoking is very expensive”, and as the tobacco
companies know that demand for cigarettes is highly price insensitive, future steep
price increases are practically guaranteed.