With the reign of social media expanding every minute and the wave of influence it has had on kids’ lives (especially teens), they have started learning about things a little too early. Followers, YouTube channels, selfies, fashion, relationships… all these things didn’t matter as much earlier.
Suddenly, the world our teens live in today has so many pitfalls and peer pressure seems to be right up there and is like never before.
Today we are gonna talk about one of them. Like cigarettes before, vaping is the new “cool” thing for this generation.
What Is Vaping?
An e-cigarette, or vape pen, is an electronic device that heats a pod of liquid, turning it into a vapour that contains nicotine, flavourings and other substances. It may not be as bad as cigarettes but there are plenty of harmful reasons not to encourage it.
Effects Of Vaping
Despite being banned in India, VAPE is the hottest new accessory being normalised by affluent teens.
“It’s a peer group issue. Kids usually start beacsue someone in their group is vaping. And the first thing they are told is ‘It is not a cigarette’ so they don’t feel it is bad for them.”– Dr Safala Shroff (Adolescent health educator)
A supposedly “good quality e-cigarette” is in the range of Rs 3000 and above. The lowest shows in the range of Rs 250 on Amazon. So it makes it quite easy for kids to buy it. It is truly shocking to know how kids get access to money and things they are not supposed to without their parents knowing.
Child & adolescent psychiatrist, Zirak Marker blames parents for this too. He has come across parents who get their kids all this from abroad thinking it’s cute and not harmful.
“Nowadays, parents are too afraid to set boundaries and come down hard on their kids- which is sad beacause tough love has always worked. Youngsters’ frustration tolerance has seemed to go down. Today, when I’m counselling kids, I find that if they have a small break up with ther freind, or if a teacher berates them, they go crazy.”– Zirak Marker
Vaping can lead teens to form an addiction to nicotine and then start getting addicted to cigarettes. Even though it has not yet plunged its roots in India, however, western influence is big, especially when it comes to our young population. We need to spread awareness about it and bust the myth that it is safe,
“While we are not seeing incidents of EVALI (E-cigarettes or vape-associated lung injury) in India, it is better to be pre-emtive and dispel the myth that it is safe.”– Dr Abha Mahashur, consultant plumonologist, Lilavati hospital
Luke Coutinho has given us a deeper dive into its harmful ingredients and the many other causes it can lead to…
So how do we let our kids know before they form a horrible habit? We asked this question this week on our Instagram as the #KSPQuestionOfTheWeek and got a lot of responses.
Here is what they had to say!
Peer pressure…Oh, that’s the one question we need to ask ourselves for everything concerning teens today!
Good point!
That’s a really nice parenting technique!
Always talk to kids and communicate- it’s the first parenting skill to have!
Do you agree? What are your thoughts? Tell us in the comments below! Share this parents and learn about their opinions too!
KSP Team
Anusha Veluswamy
Rati Ramadas Girish
Dr Amit Chakraborty
