Smoking was once the foundation of nearly all of culture and economy. People cultivated tons of pounds of tobacco to feed the appetites of entire countries. Yet, despite craving tobacco so strongly, people also craved control over the things that they smoked.
That desire to control what people would smoke helped contribute to vaping’s popularity.
Answering the question of exactly when did vaping become popular can be a difficult task. People dreamed about things related to e-cigarettes and vaping mods for decades before they ever started being manufactured as they are today.
Yet, once manufacturers found a way to produce vaping products at a large enough scale, the industry took off. Now, vaping is a $22.6 billion industry. People dreamed over the power to customize the things they smoked, and manufacturers made those dreams a reality — profiting in the process.
Keep reading below to learn more about how vaping became so popular, and the factors that led to its rise.
Electronic Smoking Was Once Science Fiction
In the 1930s, when industry leaders commercialized smoking, people imagined a world where they could choose what flavors to smoke. They were stuck with whatever the cigarette companies wanted to give them. People had no control over their lives and wanted to find agency within them.
As a result, electronic cigarettes became a motif in patents and in fiction. The combination of the spread of electrical power grids and the rise of advertising sparked people’s imaginations about what was possible in the tobacco industry.
Modern Vape Mods Introduced Gave Smokers Control
Yet, it wasn’t until the 1990s when electronic cigarettes began to be produced in a large enough scale to be sold to people. Originally, vaping was advertised as an alternative to typical smoking. It was shown as a way for people to kick the habit, while still getting a nicotine fix.
Later, vape mods would give rise to an international community of vapers. These vape mods were more than just electronic cigarettes and truly gave people power over what they inhaled.
Flavor Was Just the Start of the Changes
Vape mods allowed people to explore premium e juice brands, to find which one they enjoyed the most. They could do more than just select flavors and quantities. People now had control over how much nicotine they would inhale per puff, and whether they wanted to burn oil or herbs.
That kind of control was exciting. It meant that people could express themselves in an entirely new kind of way — with their vaporizers. It also meant that people could take control over how they wanted to quit smoking or experiment with it in safer ways.
It’s Hard to Answer “When Did Vaping Become Popular?”
The vaping industry is always changing; it’s always evolving into something better than it was before. And while it may be rooted in 1930s ideas of autonomy, there are arguments that vaping was always something people fantasized about. It’s hard to answer the question, “when did vaping become popular?”
It’s easy to say that vaping is here to stay now, though. Vaping is a multi-billion dollar industry with millions of people all a part of an international community. The industry can only grow at this point, and that means there are a lot of changes on the horizon.
Stay informed on them by reading here. Our website is always updated with articles about vaping and the technology behind it.
