It’s true, of course, that the Internet’s utterly awash with facts, discussions, thoughts and opinions on vaping, covering all manner of different topics from and related to the world of e-cigarettes. And yet, there’s one subject or even point of contention that’s rarely touched on – is vaping a habit or is it a hobby?
Certainly, people in the media – and, to be fair, many vapers – have different takes on the answer to this question. As a vaper, perhaps the most honest and best way to answer the question is to take a good, long look at your vaporiser, your mod(s), your e-juices and other assorted vaping paraphernalia and then reflect – how did you get to the point you’re at now? And what is that point? Habit or hobby?
The reality, no doubt, is that when you started out you didn’t look at it as either of those things; for the vast majority of vapers, they take up the activity as a means to try and quit the tar- and carbon monoxide-rich tobacco of conventional smoking for something far less harmful – even if it’s something that’s going to necessarily help deliver their nicotine hit. Doing so may well have changed their life or, indeed, saved it – but where does that leave them now? What is vaping to them now?
A habit and a hobby?
So, consider this… following take-up of vaping, it slowly but surely changed from a necessary alternative to smoking to filling the genuine hole that smoking would otherwise leave, thus becoming a habit. Yet, obviously, in a much more preferable way; fulfilling that craving for nicotine, which with any amount of luck, you may well have been able to reduce over time, while trying out all kinds of delicious and funky e-juice flavours.
And, to that end, perhaps it’s also a hobby – rather than merely a habit. It could be that, in addition to trying out all the new flavours, you also enjoy collecting all the different bits and pieces that make up today’s equipment essential for any serious vaper – vaporises and mods and more, like the SMOK Vape range, with its fine and reliable offerings for any vaper’s collection, for sure.
But enough of the speculation; what do vapers really think? Well, a Facebook survey’s recently been conducted among the UK e-cig community to discover exactly that on this topic – and the results have proved to be interesting, to say the least.
Survey results
So, of those surveyed (a total 207 individuals), a quarter of them – 25 percent – stated that, for them, vaping constituted a hobby, while 10 percent claimed it was both a hobby and a habit in their eyes. Maybe a little unexpectedly, 11 percent of respondents admitted that, although they wanted and intended to, they hadn’t even started vaping yet – underling, surely, the popularity of an activity that seems to simply become more and more fashionable by the day.
As to a more involved impression of respondents’ personal journeys with vaping, one explained that it was definitely a hobby in their eyes; particularly enjoying, as they do, discovering and using new equipment like mods, tanks and more in various combinations and trying to achieve the ‘perfect airflow, wick and build’ for the finest vaping experience possible, Another looked upon vaping as more of a habit, yet clarified it as something that had aided them in achieving significant health benefits – not just quitting smoking and becoming entirely nicotine-free, but also reducing their blood sugar levels and losing weight. Way to go, vaping!
Finally, another survey participator concluded that e-cig use for them boiled down to being both hobby and habit. They couldn’t deny it being the latter given that, even after quitting conventional tobacco cigarettes three-and-a-half years ago they’re still at the mercy of nicotine cravings, but it’s also happily become a hobby, as throwing themselves into browsing through, buying and using different mods encouraged and enabled them to start building their own vaping equipment, thereby engaging their creative side.
To sum up then, the survey reveals that, among the e-cig community, vaping is looked upon in different ways; it can be either a hobby or a habit, was one and is now the other or, indeed, is both at the same time. And there’s nothing wrong with that; it’s evidence of how engaging and fulfilling an activity vaping truly is, not least because it can help bring about positive life-changing experiences for those prepared to give it a go.