The addiction to cigarettes and alcohol isn’t something that has been introduced as a new trend. People have been addicted to them overages, the generation of today is just not as shy to display their love for it. Yet, we see that perhaps the young Indians are in some ways more prone to cigarettes and alcohol than the previous ones and we cannot help but wonder why?

The basic thing remains the same that times have changed and people have become more open about it. It is no more activities performed by the elder men in a group where nobody else would be allowed in the case of alcohol and smoking freely being restricted to them in the case of cigarettes. People of all age groups and genders have let themselves freely consume without the social stigmas holding them back anymore. The fact that they are health hazards are the questions for another day, but that they are consumed in a widespread manner is what the reality is today.

Another aspect to that is peer pressure. The ones who consume these somehow think of themselves to be much cooler than ones who don’t. They will go on to show the world that their habits are those of which the cool kids are apart while the others are just missing out on life. The funny part to this aspect is that those who are strict of their principles to abstain think of the other half as nuts while the other half thinks of them as saints who have something missing from life. This struggle to be able to maintain one’s own ideology leads to some of those people who participate in the act just to be able to fit in with the cooler crowd.

Smoking and drinking are also seen as alternatives to relieving stress. The times today have become tougher with more competition in any walk of life. College drive students crazy with their study and assignment loads, work drives people crazy with the pressure to be able to perform well at all times – the load that the younger generation faces is a lot more than what it used to be before and everyone needs something to cope with. This leads to cigarettes and alcohol being everyone’s favourite go-to stress buster. 

There, of course, are a lot of alternative methods like talking to someone and making them your worthy support zone, to indulge in a hobby to divert your mind from the tensions, to read a book or watch some TV or things alike. The reason these get ignored by most is that they want to be able to numb their senses and be able to forget about their problems for a while or to clear their heads which these alternative activities cannot help with.

The addition of the younger generation is something you really cannot blame them for. It is the pressure of the times and the people in it that have led them to where they are today. There are those who began because they loved the taste it left on their tongues as a reminder that they had a refuge to go back to, but then there are those who need it in order to survive their stressful lives or just to be able to fit in. 

PS- we’re not encouraging the consumption of either but only stating why we think situations today are as they are.