Peer Pressure and Public Smoking

So does peer pressure really have an effect even on smoking? Well just out of interest I went around asking some of my friends if they were ever affected by other smokers, how they were affected, and how they felt towards AUB being a nonsmoking campus. Sarah said that having both her parents at home being smokers did not lead her to become a smoker herself. On the contrary, she had a clear thought of the dangers of smoking. “Aside from all the harmful side effects, I simply don’t want to end up having my clothes and breath smelling like cigarettes!” Charbel on the other hand claimed that the AUB nonsmoking campus was only effective at bringing those nonsmokers closer to the smokers. “Well we’re not going to leave our friend’s just sitting there alone, so now we’re joining them at the smoking areas, which actually has made many of us take up smoking as a habit. I think AUB has made things worse.” Personally, I believe that there is no doubt that peer pressure does exist and that it forces many to adopt this dirty habit. However, better education in school, as well as having universities adopt a nonsmoking policy, is an excellent start at informing society as a whole just how much smoking is frowned upon.