Why is Smoking Cool?

Smoking is cool. One can argue until one is blue in the face, but it doesn’t change the fact that smoking is cool.

Why is it cool? Well, the obvious answer is probably due to successful advertising campaigns on part of big tobacco, but I get paid to speculate so that answer won’t cut it for this article. I like to think it has something to do with peer associations.

Smoking a cigarette in public is the fast track for making friends. Smokers congregate – especially around entrances – and converse. I made many friends by standing in one place and feeding an addiction.

Smoking looks cool. The hand-to-mouth motion is a rather sexual one and God knows the coolest thing in the world is copulation. The smoke itself wraps and twists in the air in fascinating fractals pleasing to the eye. The interior of the lungs are displayed through the exhale of smoke.

Smoking feels cool. First, and most important, it gives you business. It provides a task to occupy your time, hands, and face. It’s something to do when you trek by foot or car. It gives you an excuse.

In a boring or tense conversation, smoking provides an outlet and the limit on a topic. Inside, one must often excuse oneself in order to smoke. It’s pretty much customary in The States to excuse such a thing. Leaving the conversation or just changing locale is enough to wreck havoc on most un-engaging or overly-engaging conversations. There’s also some magical – somewhat spoken of – etiquette that says “scene,” at the end of a cigarette.

Speaking of ending conversations, smoking can also engage a conversation. It isn’t unusual – in fact, it’s often expected – to participate in some small talk or be privy to observe a conversation with one from whom you asked to bum a cigarette.

I encourage smoking as much as I encourage snorting cocaine. It’s cool, fun, and feels good, but not something you want to make a habit of. Fortunately, in The States, smoking is getting less cool. Trends show less and less youthful smokers and bans are in effect in many parts of the country.

I was a smoker. I probably should say am instead of was, but I’m trying to quit. I was pissed when I encountered bans for the first time. I still don’t agree with them on a fundamental level, but I’m glad for them.

For you smokers who read this and get pissed, I just ask you to recognize one thing: Addiction. For those of you who haven’t smoked, you probably don’t have a grasp on what addiction truly is.

Smokers, go 3 hours without a cigarette - 5 if you’re really well disciplined and then treat yourself. Discover how agitated you can really get without a fix. Learn the depths of your addiction. That’s the only real way you’ll be motivated to break the chains you wear as a nicotine slave.