-Authored by Hunter Phelps
How are misinformation and clickbait harming the vape industry? I’m sure by now you’ve seen at least one or two posts pop up on your Facebook feed, or you’ve been sent one by a “concerned family member or friend” that reads something like this “Studies show that vaping leads to (fill in the blank is some obscure, scary-sounding ailment).” These clickbait titles are directly harming the vaping industry and you can do your part to help dispel these insidious attempts to perpetuate the stigma against vaping.
Where are these articles coming from?
Vaping has become an extremely popular form of nicotine consumption in the last five years. With any popular trend, there is always a willingness for news and media to peddle anything negative against those trends. Simply put, if something is good, there is a vicious need in the news to prove it’s bad as the stories that get the most views are the ones that cater to the extremes in our culture. Nobody is going to read an article if it simply says “Vaping is good” or “Vaping is bad” but “Vaping may lead to this obscure disease that may kill you!” that’s going to get a click and a read which is all news and media outlets want.
While consumers in our society should always question what they read, and look for the scientific evidence that supports it, that’s just not what we have been trained to do. When something pops up on facebook, we either accept what the title says and think “I guess vaping is bad, I better warn my brother in law.” or we read the article and accept that at face value as well, which leads to misinformation, and people wary of using e-cigarette products as an alternative to traditional nicotine products.
What can we do?
Information is power! We’ve all heard this, but here it is especially prevalent. Every vaper has experienced this, you pull out your eCig and immediately hear one of your friends or family members say something negative about it like “You know… I read those things are going to kill you.” Don’t shrug it off and say you’re aware of the risks and you don’t care, instead educate your antagonist! There are numerous studies and health articles that can easily be found online that provide pro-vape data and research.
Many articles are doctor written and specifically address and even “debunk” some of the more popular anti-vape media claims. These are the facts and research you should be arming yourself with in order to combat the misinformation that skeptics are disseminating. Everyone, even you, can do your part to begin the education process and minimize the misinformation that plagues our industry.