Somewhere along the way, the generation that grew up on vape detectors decided the cigarette is the cleaner option. On TikTok and Reddit, young smokers are calling cigarettes the “plant-based alternative” to vaping — real tobacco, the argument goes, against a pocket full of chemicals.
Everest Simmons, 26, of Los Angeles, put it in a TikTok that did 4.2 million views. She says she started on cigarettes at 13, moved to vaping in the JUUL years, then switched back, and she credits the switch with helping a fractured hand heal. Her real point is about habit, not health: a vape lives in your pocket and gets hit all day, while a cigarette makes you go outside and finish it. Mollie Fraser posted the same opinion and thousands agreed, a 22-year-old in New York made the same effort argument, and up to 80% of young adult smokers call themselves social smokers.
Addiction counselor Rebecca Boone calls the switch an “illusion of control,” and doctors want no part of the healthier claim — Dr. Carol Eisenstat called it “concerning.” Tobacco stocks are at five-year highs anyway: Philip Morris up more than 100% in five years, British American Tobacco up about 73%. But the habit itself is not back yet. Federal numbers still make Gen Z the least-smoking generation going, about 1 in 91 of its younger members smoking in the past month in 2024. The early upticks are real: first-time smoking among 18-to-25-year-olds rose from 2.2% to 3.2%, seniors using any tobacco product jumped from 17% to 21.8% in a year, and tobacco showed up in 77 of the top 152 movies of 2024, up from 58 of 141. The look got there first. The numbers are deciding whether to follow.