By Nadia Rivas
Entering the bathroom of Westfield Valley Fair, a popular hangout spot for friends and family, I saw from the corner of my eye three girls around 10 years old with vapes in their hands, dressed in questionable clothes. I blink, thinking my eyes are deceiving me, but I can’t help but stare. I was interrupted by one of the young girls in a rude tone. She goes, “Can I help you?” Caught off guard, I panic and say, “No”, and enter quickly into the empty bathroom stall as I go about my business. I think, “Are they being too easily influenced by the older generation?”, “WHAT IS HAPPENING?” This isn’t the only time I have seen this, there have been many times I’ve witnessed 9-year-old “gang members,” or so they say.
So the question I’m dying to know is if the new generation is getting worse. Growing up in 2008, I never, up until high school, knew what a vape was. I still don’t understand how someone could find pleasure in smoking flavored air and I don’t understand how young kids are willing to do it. In an article about E-cigarettes and teens, it says, “Nicotine exposure during the teenage years can harm brain development, which continues until about age 25. It can impact learning, memory, and attention, and increase the risk of future addiction to other drugs. Young people who use e-cigarettes may be more likely to go on to use regular cigarettes.” The kids using e-cigarettes don’t even understand the harmful effects of vaping and how damaging it can be. All they care about is the coolness factor of it. 2.5 million youths use e-cigarettes. Even though it seems too good to be true, there have been instances where I’ve heard kids talking about buying a new flume(a type of vape) and a new cart (containing marijuana) from vape shops and hearing them talk about how the guy was cool, and they didn’t ask for ID. Like what? Another instance is every time I go into the bathroom. I see a group of girls crowding the bathroom and vaping, and they dare to look at me like I’m doing something wrong. Oh! Sorry that I’m trying to use the bathroom to go to the BATHROOM. It is sad to see young kids damaging their bodies. If this continues further into the future, cigarettes may be more likely to develop other addictions in the future. In a recent study, it was shown that teens who smoke nicotine show lower congestive function, shorter attention spans, and increased impulsivity, depression, and anxiety in their adulthood. It is sad to see young teens damaging their bodies. Many will say they don’t care, and that it’s their body. Yes, it’s your body, but they are the same kind of people that I just know in the future are going to regret using nicotine products and fall into an addiction which will then be too late to stop. Smoking of any sort is harmful and if you take a step back and see it from a perspective, you’ll realize our generation is the test dummies for vaping, and it may be too late to fix it.