An upcoming paper in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine makes the argument that future research into vaping and other areas of public health would benefit from monitoring large numbers of social media users in “digital cohorts”. The authors’ descriptions of the various “signs of addiction” to vaping, as spotted in users’ social media updates, may strike some as alarming.
Although vaping has been identified as better than cigarette and tobacco smoking, it’s not a healthy habit. Advice for putting down the vape for good, alongside horror stories of personal accounts, can make anyone dread the day they want to try to quit vaping, no matter how addicted they are. In this new study, the researchers identified a major sign a person may be addicted to the popular habit, and how successful people were when they documented their attempts to ditch it online. One person quoted in the study wrote that they feel “very out of place” whenever their vape dies, and later added they are “severely addicted to nicotine” and “need help”.
Posting about vaping on social media could be a sign you’re addicted
In July, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine will publish research00028-X/fulltext#) into social media users’ efforts to quit vaping.
The researchers monitored the social media posts of a digital cohort. The group was made up of people who self-reported vaping and posted about it at least 10 times during a set period of time. Some of the posts describe levels of addiction and physical suffering many might find surprising, given vapes’ veneer of cleanliness and safety.
Among those in the study group, for all first quitting attempts, just 26% were successful. That’s about a quarter. For a comparison, previous research suggests that a higher proportion (40-52%) of people who smoke cigarettes are able to quit on their first attempt.
That means vaping might be twice as hard to give up as smoking. On average, those studied in the present research tried to quit vaping about a year and a half after they first posted on social media about vaping.
Researchers found that the people who tweeted about vaping, their devices and new flavors, spoke about it more on social media. This included failed attempts and trying to get over the hardship of giving up the habit, showing it could be a sign of addiction.
Negative effects of vaping include ‘chronic wheezing’
One of the cohort members started describing signs of addiction 45 days after their first post about vaping. After nearly a year, they realized they ought to quit.
After a year and a half, they began to describe “chronic wheezing”, in the researchers’ words. That’s just one of a few nasty side effects regular vapers can suffer. They quit for two weeks and then bought more vape liquids, and the cycle continued.
“I am straight wheezing for a month now,” they wrote in one of their social media posts.
On the safety of vaping, Johns Hopkins Medicine writes that while vaping may be less harmful than smoking, it’s “still not safe” for your health.
Vaping is only ever actively encouraged as a stepping stone for quitting smoking
For those who smoke cigarettes, or any other tobacco product, vaping may be helpful as a way to stop smoking.
The NHS writes that nicotine vaping is “substantially less harmful than smoking”. It’s also “one of the most effective tools for quitting smoking”. However, the organization only recommends it for adult smokers, to support quitting smoking and staying quit.
Johns Hopkins research director Michael Blaha says there is “almost no doubt that vaping exposes you to fewer toxic chemicals than smoking traditional cigarettes”.
But he also emphasizes thousands of lung injuries and dozens of deaths associated with e-cigarette or vape use. Like other nicotine products, vapes contain numerous chemicals, many of which have not been rigorously studied for their effects on the human respiratory system.
