By EMILY SEPPELT

The Mirror reporter

In this modern world, we have managed to upgrade almost everything in our lives, including cigarettes.  A new culture has emerged around the practice of vaping among many teens. There are countless videos, channels, and Instagram accounts dedicated to the amazing smoke art and colors one can make with the machine.

It is so popular; many people within this community refer to themselves as part of the “Vape Nation,” and people belonging to this nation have become a bit of a trope on the internet.

But what is vaping, really?

Vaping is a new way to smoke and is often referred to as e-cigarettes. They use flavored liquids that one can buy and put into a canister that the e-cigarette turns into a steam that the user then inhales. The liquid contains nicotine and, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), two chemicals called Diacetyl 2 and 3-pentanediione as well.

While it is true that e-cigarettes are not as bad as smoking traditional cigarettes, many officials warn against picking up the habit. Nicotine is still addictive, especially to younger brains, and Diacetyl 2 and 3-pentanediione are proven to cause serious lung problems. It is also statistically proven that many teens who start to vape eventually move on to smoking traditional cigarettes.

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), more and more teens are still beginning to vape anyways.  More than 2 million middle and high school students were current users of e-cigarettes in 2016, and that number rose has been on the rise for years, with e-cigarette use rising from 1.5 percent to 16.0 percent among high school students and from 0.6 percent to 5.3 percent among middle school students from 2011 to 2015.

So why do teenagers still believe vaping to be okay? Many teens cite that vaping is not bad for you. However, the biggest attracter may be all the different flavors available to taste. According to the FDA, in 2013-2014, 81 percent of current youth e-cigarette users cited the availability of appealing flavors as the primary reason for use.

There are over 34 different flavors available on the website of the vape company “White Cloud Cigarettes.” A few examples include Banana, Atlantic-Cut, Bad Apple, and Chocolate.

Many cite this as the reason why vaping has become so cool and popular, which is harmful.

Organizations such as the Truth Campaign are fighting against all kinds of smoking. Their goal is to have our generation to be the generation that ends smoking. You can take the pledge to not smoke or vape at the website www.thetruth.com.