Is it me or is smoking cigarettes becoming cool again?

[Sonato]

Just that really.

Seems like its coming back as an aesthetic, bit worrying for the younguns but also has me itching to light up having packed in 20 odd years ago

If it is, it's yet more evidence people are getting more stupid.

@likelysuspect Just to add, re. the traffic lights, I don't take any notice of those either. I watch my calories to maintain my weight, so I just look at the calorie value and decide whether it's something I can fit in and whether it's worth it if I'd have to cut something else out. I don't need someone telling me it's red, green or amber.

When my daughter went to Uni she was shocked how many people smoked in her halls. (They are Mumsnet naice halls at a Russell Group uni). She hates it as it breaks up the party when everyone leaves to go out for a smoke. Her bedroom is right by the smoking area too. I don’t know how the afford it tbh.

Stinking like a filthy ashtray isnt my idea of cool neither are brown teeth and yellow fingers. Yuck.

The cool is the Old Movies vibe (and I'm not talking 90's, I'm talking Bette Davis, Bogart and Bacall) where everybody looks elegant and one can smell nothing.
Of course the Russians still smoke like crazy and thus the gorgeous young man (the actor is in fact a Texan) on Heated Rivalry.
Actually, come to think of it, it is all Ilya's fault.

DH and I watch a lot of TV. There was a lot of smoking on TV in the 90s, then it died down a lot in the 2000s but in the last tenish years there's been a very very noticeable uptick in characters smoking on screen. I always point it out. DH is very patient (!). Usually there's no reason for the character to smoke - there's no plot point, no back story, they just smoke. I wonder if something changed in the background, some sort of barrier, legislation, something that encouraged more smoking on screen. Once you pay attention you'll notice it everywhere. It has a subtle but significant effect on people when they see 'cool' people smoking, or people using cigarettes to relax, calm down etc.

The same with my adult kids. In fact the teenage version of them were horrified by smoking , and now my youngest son particularly,openly admits he loves it and will smoke forevermore!

vaping https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/5-truths-you-need-to-know-about-vaping
i sort of smoke i dont inhale and use a second filter every 4 cigs i use new one
only vice i have at almost 70 dont care ebay is my friend

Yeah go get lung cancer. That'll be so cool

I recently spent every day for 3 weeks visiting a dying relative in our local respiratory ward and every single person in my relative's section was an ex-smoker. They were all facing the end of their lives in a painful and degrading way. Perhaps all these people who think it is so cool should spend a few days visiting one of these wards.

He doesn't love it. He's addicted to it.

Its having a come back

No idea why :-S

Im 39 and smoked years before any of the health warnings on packaging. I'll tell you now, if you're already a smoker, those 'smoking kills' packs are ignored. I know smoking kills but I like my cigs so I'll do what I want. I pay enough tax to do it 😅 that's why they'll never completely ban smoking, they take in way too much tax to look lose

I live in the US, and thankfully this is not something I've noticed here. I rarely see anyone of any age smoking.

It’s definitely coming back into fashion - there’s an account on Instagram called “@cigfluencers” which posts pictures of celebrities smoking and apparently looking cool doing it. 99k followers. It’s awful.

I liked smoking, opening a new packet, hearing the crackle as you inhale and seeing the end burning away.
However it just absolutely stinks and I gave up many years ago. Vapes really don't have the appeal and tbh I think they could even turn out to be worse healthwise.
I am too rewatching This Life and remember that smoking was absolutely everywhere, including my college which had smoking and non smoking common rooms and the top deck of the bus!

I think they do, but it's "medical" marijuana spliffs. Many States have legalised cannabis which is still illegal here. And there's the fentanyl/opiates issue in the US also.

Nowhere is saintly when it comes to addictive substances!

I noticed it in the states last year. Three different states (NYC was more weed than cigarettes tbh)

And I commented to my dsis a couple of weeks ago a lot of young people looking outside a bar

I'm a smoker. However 20 lasts me about 3 weeks but at one point was 10 a day.
I do vape now and hate that just as much.

I'm really miserable since I stopped smoking. I'm audhd and the loss of dopamine led to depression and craving sugar, so weight gain. It's been 17 years since I quit, I'm still miserable and fat, which will kill me prematurely anyway. Why live to be old if you're destined to get there in a state of misery? And most people die of some horrible illness anyway. You don't get a nice death because you're not a smoker. I suppose you might live more years in ill health before you die, but my damn weight is already causing problems and I'm not even old.

It's strange that exercise, running, gym-going, attention to diet etc. are all very much more prevalent than in the past; but smoking is coming back into fashion? Seems a bit contradictory.

But then again my dad was always a gym-goer (or the multi-gym, they were called in the 70s!) and a heavy smoker for his entire adult life.
Died aged 70 from lung cancer.

I work at a university and noticed a definite increase in the numbers of students smoking around the doorways to our buildings.

DP is a casual smoker, and I’m afraid I do think he looks cool/sexy when he lights up. I have no idea why because it’s been drilled into me since I was a child how disgusting a habit it is.

I think it might have something to do with it being a 90s aesthetic, and me being positively obsessed with the 90s.

Oh, absolutely. But the OP was talking specifically about cigarettes, I believe. I certainly smell weed whenever I'm in a city.

Yes, quite a lot of famous younger people smoke cos it’s ‘cool’ again. Timothee Chalamet, Lilly Allen, Kylie and the other one, Dua Lipa, Charlie xcx. They ‘smoke to look cool’ with Lilly Allen and Charlie xcx both doing promotional work smoking as part of the aesthetic. I’m the same age as Lily Allen, and while I do like her, I think it’s idiotic.

You'd think SMOKING KILLS would put them off, wouldn't you?!

You can't fix stupid but at least they're contributing tax to the economy I suppose.