F E AT U R E
Sociology and Vaping can
be considered as martial
arts, they are serving as
tools of protection; harm
reduction in tobacco abuse
protects us from smoking,
essentially, vaping clearly
protect us. Sociology could
easily be interpreted as a
harm reduction technique
as well, since it protects
us from ignorance, false
consciousness and anything
else known to be immoral.
your minds and open up doors you may
have never known were closed. Then
again, these attempts could very well be
unsuccessful, yet opening locked doors
of my consciousness and increasing
my overall understanding of social
awareness is exactly what Sociology did
for me. So, I urge you to follow along and
give it a chance.
One of the few legendary Sociologists,
Pierre Bourdieu referred to Sociology as
a martial art; a form of selfdefense.
As Vapers, we know how effective vaping
truly is as a harm reduction method.
Since Vaping reduces the harm we are
causing ourselves, it is reasonable to
suggest how vaping defends us from
smoking. Therefore, both Sociology
and Vaping can be considered as
martial arts, they are serving as tools of
protection; harm reduction in tobacco
abuse protects us from smoking,
essentially, vaping clearly protect us.
Sociology could easily be interpreted
as a harm reduction technique as well,
since it protects us from ignorance, false
consciousness and anything else known
to be immoral.
Ultimately, Sociology is harm reduction
and since Vaping can also be considered
a martial art, these two entities go
hand in hand. So, it is Sociology and
Vaping that are becoming one in the
same, not smoking and vaping; the
mass differences among smoking and
vaping continue to grow. The similarities
between Sociology and Vaping thus
continue to become vast and universal.
It’s safe to say these two have a very
healthy relationship, which is difficult to
come by these days.
Nevertheless, let us further examine
what Sociology technically is,by
definition. The academic discipline
known as Sociology can be and has
been defined in a number of separate
incidents, yet all in a similar fashion. The
American Sociological Association has
defined Sociology as the study of group
life. Also, Sociology has been as defined
as the study of social interaction and
societal issues. Pierre Bourdieu, a
Sociologist with a celebrity-type status
among his native country of France,
defined Sociology as the scientific study
of social phenomena in human beings.
Many textbooks like to simplify, using as
few words as possible, simply stating
that Sociology is the study of human
behavior.
In light of this, due to the simplified
and broad spectrum of information
being used to define Sociology by
organizations as well as textbooks, I
myself, prefer to eradicate simplicity
due to the widerange of issues in
which Sociology can cover. Sociology
is ubiquitous; Sociology is connected
to everything and anything. Therefore,
when defining Sociology, it is certainly
beneficial to be very slightly vague since
Sociology is so broad in scope, but in
its very essence, Sociology is infinite,
that is why, without a doubt, Sociology
is synonymous with the term ubiquitous.
While these textbook definitions are
certainly accurate, it seems slightly
devaluing to the academic discipline of
Sociology by not including some very key
elements. In which, personally, I prefer
to refer to Sociology as “an intellectual
academic discipline which systematically
theorizes and scientifically interprets
data regarding socially interactive human
behavior, a vast array of societal issues
and how these larger issues affects
individual personal lives, as well as
the process of a comparative analysis
between current social findings with
previous social research.” Therefore,
Sociology can be a powerful tool for
assisting others in determining their
opinion or belief of whether vaping is as
beneficial as vapers claim it to be or if it
is as dangerous and harmful as antivaping affiliates assume.
Altogether, there are three main
theoretical perspectives to Sociology,
these include the Conflict Perspective,
Symbolic Interactionism, and Structural
Functionalism. In other words, imagine
you were at the top of the Empire State
Building, but in actuality it isn’t that exact
building, yet it is still a tall skyscraper
where you could look down on the world
around you by simply looking below
you. Imagine there are three separate
telescopes you could view society
from all at the very top of this highrise
building. One of these telescopes is
VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE ISSUE 04 91