CAUSES OF TEENAGE SMOKINGA pptx

CAUSES OF TEENAGE SMOKING A thirteen-year-old boy, standing in the doorway of his school, puffs on a cigarette.. Teenage smoking is driven by personal insecurity, a desire to be like adu

CAUSES OF TEENAGE SMOKING

A thirteen-year-old boy, standing in the doorway of his

school, puffs on a cigarette He holds it carelessly, like an

adult, yet in plain view He looks around to make sure that

the other guys are watching If you ask how he has

smoked, you will find out that he started when he was

eleven By now, he is an addicted smoker If you ask him

why he smokes, he will probably say he enjoys it Then

you wonder if that is really the reason But the harsh

reality is that he, altogether with many other adolescents,

is among those who contribute to a growing number of

smokers in society nowadays It seems to me the causes

for teenage smoking are more complex More specifically,

the have more to do with the ambiguous role of teenagers

in society Teenage smoking is driven by personal

insecurity, a desire to be like adults and peer pressure

The foremost cause of teenage smoking is the insecurity

young people often feel They are at redefining and

difficult age They are no longer children, and hence the

ways in which they have behaved in the past are

inappropriate On the other hand, they are not yet adults;

still, they do not know the ways of the adult world This

conflict can end up in feelings of insecurity For one thing,

if children want attention from their parents or a toy or

sweet, they can cry to draw attention to their desires For

teenagers, however, crying will be labeled childish and

they will be told to “act their age.” More often than not, the

teenager does not know how to act his or her age Since

teenagers do not know what to do, they ultimately turn to

smoking as a way to hide their nervousness and

insecurities This seems to be the most fundamental

culprit of by what drive teenagers come to cigarette

consumption

As we have just seen anyhow, teenagers need to learn

how to behave as adults They of course realize this and

spend time emulating the grown-ups Thus they attempt to

adopt more adult attitudes and manners They also pay

attention to their dress and the opposite sex One thing

which youngsters perceive as “very adult” is smoking

cigarettes Perhaps a boy sees his father or older brother

smokes He thinks of his father as a man and therefore he

wants to be “a man” like his father, treacherously

expediting him to smoke, beginning a habit that most

adults know is unhealthy

While it is true that teenagers are attempting to become

adults, this effort is often not fully conscious and they view

the adults closest to them, their parents and teachers, as

enemies With that in mind, they turn to their peer group

for support We are all familiar with the teenagers who

want to look, act, and dress exactly like all of the other

teenagers This peer group conformity can exert such an

extreme pressure that often teenagers do things in the

group that they would not normally do One of these things

is smoking cigarettes Imagine a group of guys playing

pool together after school One says to the others, “I’m

going to buy a pack of cigarettes Do you want to smoke

with me?” The peer pressure here is so great that most

normal boys will fail to resist and succumb

The outrageous backlash versus cigarette peaks when

publicity learns how devastating smoking is upon their

younger generations Anti-tobacco activists constantly

launch educational campaigns to teach students in their

early age the undesired and unhealthy impacts of smoking

and try to minimize the number of young smokers at best

Actively concerned parents likewise urge lawmakers to

ban promotional items as well as TV broadcasts from the

tobacco companies in an intense effort to keep cigarette

advertising, which is quite popular among teens, away

from their offspring Though encountering such severe

opposition, the industry argues that the blame should be

laid at the feet of advertisers whose goal is to lure more

adolescent consumers of this toxic chemical

We can see that personal insecurity, desire to be like

adults, and peer pressure can cause many teenagers to

commence something which they may later regret It is

really unfortunate that cigarette smoking, particularly when

started at an early age, is so addictive regardless of

afterward relief effort