Tobacco companies may have just found a way to make e-cigarettes even more addictive.
When a friend pulled out an e-cig at a playoff baseball game party earlier this month, it immediately caught my eye. I’m used to marveling at the various disposable e-cigs (its weird flavors, brands that seem endless) that she buys every time she wears off her last nicotine, but this product is different. I did. There was a screen. While she was vaping, the device played a silly little animation that reminded me of a rudimentary version of Pac-Man.
In the name of journalism, I went to my local smoke shop this week and sure enough, there were e-cigs with screens everywhere. One of the products hitting the shelves, the Geek Bar Pulse X, features a screen that wraps around the device and displays a constellation when you inhale. Another e-cigarette, Watermelon Ice Raz, displayed a rudimentary animation of a moving flame. Vapes with screens first started hitting the market late last year, but have only recently become widely available. Online retailers sell vapes with screens that look like this. planet, rocketand car running in space. The screens are small, only a few inches wide at most, and they’re cheap. These products cost just $25 and will last you several months.
The Watermelon Ice Raz vape I found at the store reminded me of the loading screen on the old Game Boy Color. I can see how adults like me can be seduced by the nostalgia of it all. The problem is that these e-cigs may also appeal to children. Although it is illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase vaping, the gadget has become popular among teenagers since it was first popularized by Juul. Rates of e-cigarette use among young people have fallen in recent years, thanks in part to public service campaigns warning children about the dangers of e-cigarettes and nicotine addiction, but the introduction of screens will reverse previous progress. There is danger. Robert Jackler, a tobacco marketing expert at Stanford University, said the animated screens send the message that e-cigarettes are “for fun, games and recreation.” Imagine you’re in 8th grade and the cool kid in your class has an e-cigarette with a screen that has a moving flame. You’ll want it.
These gadgets are so new that it’s unclear how much kids are using them, but the warning signs are all there. VAPE companies are known for selling products in kid-friendly flavors like Banana Taffy Freeze and Cherry Bomb, and screen vaping could be the next strategy to attract kids. The e-cigarette industry “will do whatever it takes to introduce novel features to attract new users, and this is just one example of that,” says a study on e-cigarette use by youth. says Laura Strike, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Electronic cigarettes, he told me. Mr. Fog, one of the most popular vape brands among teens, has already launched a screen vape.
Screen vaping has the risk of becoming a fad, and it only becomes popular among children because people they admire are using it, says the senior marketing lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, who has written about vaping for young people. Emily Moorlock told me. That was certainly my experience as a child. I remember begging my parents for a Game Boy because other kids in elementary school had one. The same goes for vaping: the government ask the children The best explanation for why they decided to vape is because their friends vape.
Screens can also make e-cigarettes more addictive. Even the simplest visuals, such as retro video games, have been shown to trigger the brain to release dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of pleasure and reward. Even the rudimentary e-cigarettes I’ve come across (those that just play a small animation on a loop) can cause a spike in dopamine, which can increase a user’s desire for these products. , three experts told me.
Tony Abboud, president of the lobby group Steam Technology Association, described them to me as advances in technology. In addition to animations, many of these screens tend to display how much battery and nicotine juice your device has left. Aboud said public health groups are trying to brand screened e-cigarettes as the industry’s “next bad example” of marketing to children, even though youth e-cig adoption rates are declining. . “Just because a new technology has new features doesn’t mean that those features are designed to sell the product to kids,” he says.
Aboud and other e-cigarette advocates argue that e-cigarettes not only lure children into nicotine addiction, but are also a tool to help smokers quit. Vaping can benefit public health because it is safer than cigarettes and as effective as or more effective than other smoking cessation products on the market. Even flavored e-cigarettes that appeal to children can help adults quit smoking and switch to e-cigarettes.
But screens serve no purpose other than cheap entertainment. If adult e-cigarette users want to be alerted when their product’s battery is low, a small power light, like a smoke detector, may be the solution. No flames or constellations needed. After years of panic over vaping rates among young people, it seems like kids are finally understanding that they shouldn’t vape. Why risk ruining it because of a smaller screen?
