Smoking and peer pressure.

February 22nd, 2010

Only a few times has anyone told me to smoke or offered me a cigarette.
Never have I been pressured into smoking and never has smoking seemed glorified in my eyes.
It was always something people did that had to be hidden.
Now I'm in college and SURPRISE, everyone smokes something.
Pot, Cigarettes, Hookah, etc.
Why? Most people tell me it's because it's the cool thing to do, they gave into peer pressure, or everyone else did it.
But college students don't have the money to be that cool, why do we really smoke? ("We" being college students, not necessarily you or me.)

Why do people smoke at all?
Smoking is bad. It may relieve stress, but so do other things, things that don't cause cancer.
Running relieves stress, and it's really good for people, Why don't we run?
Not everyone's a good runner, but smoking doesn't make it better.

Onto the point of this, because I'm not trying to argue.
Lately, I've been feeling pressured to smoke because so many people around me smoke, even if they don't say anything.
I'm not going to give in to peer pressure, because there are more negative effects of smoking than positive, but I was just wondering why this is in anyway something I would consider.
Why do people decide to smoke after knowing all of the bad consequences that are to follow?