Young Vapers

[Lyndagayle]

How many young vapers do we have among us? When I say young, I'm not referring to anyone under 18. I want to know how many of you are in your early to mid 20s. The reason I'm asking this is because I'm noticing that the young smokers I come in contact with seem to have no interest in vaping.

I'll start with my own daughter. She's 22 years old and has been smoking for several years. I was so excited when I found e-cigs and couldn't wait to tell her about them and have her try mine. The only time she's shown any interest at all is when we were at a ballgame and she was needing to smoke and didn't want to walk outside the ballpark. I was stealth vaping and she asked me if I would share. Of course I did and I thought that might start her wheels turning but it didn't. Today I went to the pharmacy to get two syringes to fill my new mega cartos with and felt I needed to share the reason I was buying them (I didn't want them to think I was using them for illicit purposes). The girl who waited on me was probably not over 22-25 years old, if that. The pharmacist, who is about my age was very interested in getting information for her son who smokes and the young girl wanted information for a friend but wasn't interested for herself, even though she was a smoker too. I found this interesting and started wondering...why would young people not want to vape instead of smoke? Would it not look as cool? Is it too much trouble? Do they fear being laughed at?

Those aren't the only young people I've tried to convert. There are about 5 others that I've talked to about it and they've even tried mine and said they liked it but didn't show any interest in getting one themselves to help them cut down or quit smoking. All of them are 25 or younger. What's up with that? How many of the people here fall in to that age category?

 

[msroulette]

I personally don't fall into the "young" category, but my 19 year old son happily sits here vaping on Atomic Cinnacide. Outside of the house, and away from my equipment, he still smokes analogs with his friends.

 

[Daedalus]

I'm 22 and have been vaping for the past year or so. I've actually found people my age to be very much interested, but usually turned off by the $50-75 upfront costs. I don't get any stigma though when I go to parties, mostly just have to fend off the hordes of people asking what it is and if you can put weed in it. There's usually at least one or two people on a given night who are seriously interested and want to quit smoking. I give them information but I don't really know how it pans out with random acquaintances. I always just tell them not to buy anything at the mall or from an infomercial.

That's a lot of the problem, people have seen someone before me using some kit from Smoking Everywhere or the like and think e-cigs put out crummy vapor, taste like ...., and ultimately don't work. After people see my eGo (or even my old 510, I had it running well) throw out a giant cloud of vapor, and see some of the flavors, even the skeptics are turned.

Still, I've gotten at least 5 people on these things. These were closer friends who I was able to guide through the process. I posted about a thread about it in the general forum here and gave some of my thoughts on younger vapers.

 

[VPDownunder]

Probably because most young ones think cancer is something other people get and they're also usually on a tighter budget and get scared of the upfront cost.

 

[uber]

<< 23, started vaping when I was 22. Knew I needed to quit before I did irreversible damage . My GF also vapes.. shes currently 22

 

[Shaka]

The upfront cost thing is relative...do they all buy their cigarettes a pack at a time? For the cost of a carton here, I could buy a 510 kit, extra atties, juice and have a good meal at Burger King w/ the change.

 

[Caddyman]

I just turned 28, thanks now I feel old.

 

[zbasspro]

I agree with what's been posted in that younger people feel they have time to quit, and don't find it as easy to justify the up front costs. I tried to convert my 18y.o. son unsuccessfully. I do know this much though. My son knows that Dad was as addicted to cigs as anyone and was able to stop by vaping, and that's good enough for now.

I do however believe at some point it may well be the "hip" thing to do and that market well may explode. That'll be the point where BT pulls out all the stops IMO. We're #s they can get by without, they need their future customers much worse.

 

[MNdomer]

Well, I know I'm not early-mid 20's...but 28 is still rather young...

I've only been vaping for 2.5 weeks, but I'm hooked I've always been a bit of a techie though, so anything I can get in electronic form is a sure hit for me. 2 of my co-workers in their late 20's are already vaping now as well and 3 more that are 40+

There have been a couple that weren't really interested, though. I think they really just don't want to quit smoking and have trouble seeing this as a nicotine replacement rather than cessation device...

 

[Jawsome]

I'm 25 and just started about 8 months ago out of curiosity. I wasn't much of a smoker at all for all of the reasons vaping doesn't force me to deal with.

 

[Elendil]

Even the best equipment requires some "fiddling" and trial and error along with some constant adjustment. For the most part, I don't think the younger crowd wants to deal with it. Using rou's son as an example, fine at home, but don't want ot take it "on the go" when he is out with his friends.......

They will wish they listened to us........

 

[Daedalus]

Maybe that's why I've had better luck. Most of the people who have been into these like new gadgets, and the fiddling and tweaking that goes along with using an ecig becomes fun for them.

Also a lot of people my age like to think they'll quit smoking when they graduate college, but they're in their final quarters and show no sign of stopping. The "teenage invincibility" wears off eventually...

 

[Datacrypt]

I'm 28. I had zero interest and actually laughed at the videos on the internet in years gone past. Then my Dad started vaping. Then I tried it... I quit laughing and quit smoking.

 

[naviathan]

I'm 29, not in the "young" catagory for this thread I guess. I quit smoking several times over the years using the various "other" stimulants, but none of them stuck. I tried a NJoy NPro over a year ago and hated it. It tasted horrible and didn't produce enough of anything to make me quit. I went back to analogs. About 3 months ago I was looking for ways to quit smoking again. I knew I needed to and fast. I found this forum and read hundreds of posts. Seeing that my NJoy was a piece of garbage I decided it was time to try a better model. I picked up a KR808 and loved it. Then I found a DSE901 while on a business trip to Cali. Then I discovered the combination of the two...Wow...
The point is this; young people don't think they have a problem until they actually try to quit and most don't until they're 25 or older. Ecigs are hard to come by for most, cost is prohibitive to a lot, there's too many bad products easily available to turn anyone off and finally, hardly anyone knows about them.

 

[Harley]

I smoked for 37 years and have been vaping just over a year now....I have 4 children 3 of which smoke.. My youngest 2 have tried vaping but they say it doesn't satisfy them.... I hope for there sake they will convert soon....

 

[Iamayesman]

I am 22 and went from 2 packs a day to this over a month ago. I tried the infomercial stuff on a whim and got signed up for all kinds of stuff. That took hours to track everyone down and cancel. I have talked to a few more people that I have met since I did my research and got good products. This is what turned them off when they tried it the same way. The people who advertise the products the most in my area tended to be the people that are the collection crowd instead of the honest vendors which is hard to overcome.

 

[Tatonka]

Probably because most young ones think cancer is something other people get and they're also usually on a tighter budget and get scared of the upfront cost.

that could not been said any better.

 

[J-ShaZzle]

24 and just started vaping. Started 3 weeks ago. Got my dad a kit, but my friends have no interest in it at all. And I quote one of my lady friends, "Don't you feel like a douche using that thing?" My reply, "No, I didn't get it to be or look cool, I got it to stop smoking." Some of my coworkers are interested in it while others wonder why I bought e-cigs. I'm not going to let anyone or anything deter my vaping. I'm in love with it although my girlfriend wants me to quit smoking/vaping all together. I use to love smoking and I enjoy vaping even more.

 

[coffey]

I'm 26 and have been vaping for about 3 months. I had a couple friends that would be considered old in this thread (30+) that had been vaping, and tried to convince me to try it as well. I smoked for about 10 years, and tried several times to quit during this time. I came close with snus, but it didn't stick. I avoided pv's at first thinking that it was a fad/too expensive. Once I started though I never looked back, and haven't had an analog since.

 

[vapin_2tha_max]

Here is my . The problem with the younger crowd is exactly what somebody else said. To reiterate/elaborate, when your in your 20's you don't quite feel the negative effects of what smoking does to your body (invincibility). Given 5-10 years, and depending on how often/much you smoke per day, the effects begin to materialize.

I am turning 33 in a few months here, and I have to say being a 2+ pack a day smoker made me realize the effects hopefully in the nick of time. I am constantly hacking and coughing like a 60 year old smoker. I know this will only get worse as the years fly by, because they are already starting to. I started vaping a few weeks ago and have been able to cut my daily intake of analogs to between 5-10 depending on the day and stress level. What a considerable improvement and I even feel a lot better and breathe a lot better now. In the next couple of weeks I will completely phase analogs out.

With cigarette taxes being hiked another $1.60 as of July 1st here in NY, that puts a pack of smokes up to somewhere around $9 a pack. I have always bought the cheapest cartons of smokes at the nearest reservation and have paid $20.00 a carton but don't even want to know what they are up to now!

Anyhow, the initial investment/cost is also a deterrent for the younger crowd. They don't realize that the initial investment might be around the cost of a carton of smokes, but the juice can be had so cheap and in the longer run they will be saving so much money and so much of their health. They only are concerned at the day to day cost and don't realize at $9 bucks a pack it adds up so fast it will make their head spin! I wish I wasn't so naive when I was younger, I never paid attention to all the "smoking warnings" I was told and I truly wish I did. I hope with the vaping that I will completely quit smoking analogs and will only have to vape long enough to cut down the nic levels to zero. Of course I enjoy it, but thats the habitual aspect. Anyhow, sorry for the long winded response but thank you for the opportunity to express my opinion. Happy Vaping!