Ethnographic Characteristics of Smokers - Research Proposal Example

Teacher Ethnographic characteristics of smokers People smoke for various reasons. Although people in general know that smoking is bad for their health, there are external and internal factors that make an individual smoke. This ethnographic characteristic of smokes shall be explored in order to understand smokers better and determine the circumstances that make them smoke. Smoking in American society is often looked at with negative connotation. But smoking becomes more acceptable in certain sectors of its society because of the cultural background of smokers. Cultural background has a strong correlation to the prevalence of smoking. Smoking becomes more acceptable in other culture and this could explain why there are more smokers in certain group of people compared to others. To illustrate, I will compare my two friends John and Jose. John is a Caucasian whose roots hailed from Louisiana and we can say that John is all-American by cultural background and orientation. Jose on the other hand is an immigrant from Mexico and prides himself as Mexican. John and Jose are of the same age bracket of 17 years old. John hates smoking while Jose is a chain smoker. When asked why John hates smoking, he replied that it is dangerous to his health and that it “stinks”. He also narrated that his parents will not also tolerate him if he smokes and that there will be dire consequences if he will smoke such as cutting off his allowance. This is a concern shared by the American general public as they are now becoming more health conscious with parents who generally dislike smoking. Jose on the other hand is more relaxed on his attitude about smoking. He said he knows that smoking is dangerous to one’s health but he reasoned that everybody dies anyway. He explained further that smoking is more acceptable among Mexicans because it makes them look more “macho” or manly. It is important to stress here that manliness or being “macho” is more important among Mexicans than Americans. According to Jose, smoking is part of that cultural thing to look like a “real man”. He said that among Mexicans, parents are not that strict about their children who will smoke. This observation is validated with most of Jose’s male friends smoke at an early age. Another ethnographic profile of smokers is those people who are in need of “stimulants” to do a certain job. They are the type of people whose vocation a lot of thinking and imagination that they need to be in a “mood” to do it. Thus, a stimulant or a relaxing tool, such as cigarette is common for them to be able write. The writer confided that he cannot write without the aid of cigarette and this dependency towards cigarette is not a unique habit of his. Many writers cannot write without the help of cigarette and most writers are smokers because they need to relax and stimulated to be able to write. To prove it, the writer showed their “watering hole” or their hang out place where most of his fellow writers unwind. The place was cordial where everybody knows each other because it was like a community of writes inside but the smoke is suffocating because it was like a chimney inside as everybody smokes. Another ethnographic profile of those who smoke who cannot be categorized under their cultural background or profession are those people who are having problematic and stressful life such as the respondent name Dario. A personal friend Dario falls into this category as he confided that smoking helps him relieve the stress that he have in the family. Smoking according to him is like a relaxing agent when there are no drugs available around to take that would help him get by with the situation. He admitted that drugs and smoking are never good to his health but pleaded understanding that it is his only coping mechanism when things get bad because it relieves him of the pain. He may not like it but it helps him deal with a particular situation. He mentioned that smoking serves as a quick fix to relax him when things get bad at home or any other situation. Quoting him when asked how it will be if there are no cigarettes to be had, the respondent replied that he might “go crazy”. It was observed that people who have stressful lives need an outlet for them to cope. And one of the tools they use to cope with stress is smoking. This trait is universal and is not only exclusive to young adults who have troubled homes such as Dario. This can also be observed also among wives who have unhappy marriages or men having trouble with their jobs. People who have problems with their personal lives also tend to smoke. It was also observed that smoking is more common among the lower economic strata of society. During the composition of this paper, a visit was made in a relatively depressed area and it was observed that smoking is common. An inquiry was made about the reason for smoking albeit its answer is inconclusive because the sample did not represent the entire population. The common answer given was that they are more concerned on getting by and solving their problems, especially if it deals with money than worrying about their health. It was also observed during the duration of writing this paper that there are a handful of people who are hooked on smoking not because they are problematic or need to look macho but merely because they tried smoking out of curiosity and eventually got hooked to it because of its addictive property. They did not know that one active ingredient of cigarette is nicotine which is very addictive. These are the young impressionable people who think that smoking is cool and got hooked to it because of the absence of adult supervision who should have warned them about the addictive properties of smoking and it ill effect to health. In general, smoking is often associated with culture because cultural background makes smoking more acceptable. It is also used as stimulants or a relaxing agent by those people whose work demands creativity and thinking such as writers and artists. The relaxing property of smoking is also helpful to those people who are living stressful lives. Those who belong in the lower economic strata also have more smokers because they are concerned less about their health than those who belong in the upper class. The common reason cited is that when one has many problems, especially financial problems, one would tend to be less concern about his or her health but is more focus on how to get by and solve the problem on hand. There are a handful of people who became addicted to it out of sheer curiosity. As to common language, action or any particular norm that is exclusive among smokers, none of it was observed because smokers are very diverse that it would be hard to stereotype them. People know that smoking is hazardous to health but the factors enumerated above make them smoke. Smoking does not make them bad people only that there are circumstances in their lives that made them depend towards an unhealthy habit of smoking in order to cope or that smoking is simply “cool” in their culture that they care less about getting lung problem or heart attack due to smoking. I personally do not advise smoking though because many of those who were asked in the writing of this paper would like to quit smoking but unable to do so because it is extremely difficult to overcome the addiction towards nicotine. does not Jose explained that Read More