3 Things People Still Do, and I Can't Figure Out Why

[Waffles731]

I've been wanting to talk about things that I'm confused about people still do for a while now.

I've finally gotten around to doing it.

1. Smoking

Okay, lets get this out of the way: smoking does in fact cause lung cancer which happens to be a very painful and unpleasant way to die. Most people pay to cure themselves of cancer or try to avoid it. If you smoke cigarettes you are paying for lung cancer.

Now lets get to the cost. Take someone who smokes a pack a day. Here in Massachusetts the cost of a pack of cigarettes averages around $9.95; let's round that to ten, and let's round each month off to thirty, so smoking a pack a day will set you back 300 dollars a month, and multiply that by twelve and you get $3,600. That is the yearly cost of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. You are paying OVER THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR TO KILL YOURSELF SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY. Then add in the whole, winded after a half a flight of stairs, the whole horrible smell. Also the effects are extremely well known. Why on earth do people even start smoking?

2. Drink Bottled Water

This is a fact; most bottled water is just plain old tap water. A lot of people drink it all day but the fact is it's the same water they could get from the tap. So lets talk about the whole portability thing. Why not just buy a reusable water bottle?

They are fairly cheap. They are reusable so you don't shell out a bunch of money every week buying a bunch of Poland springs bottled water or whatever brand you get. Seriously, its cheaper to just get a reusable water bottle. Plus you can fill it up with ice and then fill it to keep it cold.

3. Get their News from the TV

This isn't about politics; this is just about the time it takes to watch the news. So you can watch one hour's worth of news and you'll get the same amount of information that you'd get in fifteen minutes or less by searching and reading the news on the Internet. Hell, depending on the source you'll probably get far more accurate news. So if you can get the same information faster and easier, then why watch the TV news? Then you have another forty-five minutes to do other things with your day. That seems like a pretty good deal to me.

[soulbabe]

My whole family smokes except for me my 2 cousin's and grandpa. my mom trust to quit every now and then but gives up
. down whare we live you should drink bottled do to the city's water is not good for drinking I told mom why not get a filter but for some reason she thinks it tastes funny

[soulbabe]

Thanks for mho

[Dred1614returns]

Good take. I definitely agree with 1 and 2, but I still get some news from the TV. I do mostly read it online, though.

[CosmicShores]

1) People still smoke because they made the stupid decision to begin smoking when they were at a period of time in their life when they were prone to making stupid decisions that lack long term thinking. Also of all the chemicals in cigarettes there is one called nicotine that is extremely addictive. This addiction is nothing trivial. While you may know people who were able to up and just stop smoking, this is not the case for many smokers. While there are alternate options now, e-cigs, not the things you get for $9 at the gas station but the actual e-cigs you get from vape shops that give you the nicotine without having to put all the other dangerous chemicals in cigarettes into your system. There are people that have a lot of trouble using them. Mostly because their lungs are so destroyed by cigarettes that they can't take the slightest puff from these machines without having coughing fits. Then the addiction kicks in and they ask, "Why would I continue doing this, when I can just go back to cigarettes?" The obvious answer is because it's much healthier, but they don't care. They just want their fix.

2) I don't understand either... I really don't...

3) Because in this day and age most people don't care what's true and accurate. People care about what they believe, no matter how ridiculous or false or bigoted it may be. Not only this, they only care to hear "news" that backs up their delusion of choice. People watch mainstream news channels not so much to hear news, but to hear their opinions echoed back at them by supposed "experts". They don't care that it's on for hours, or that out of everything that happens in the world everyday it usually repeats the same two or three stories all day with commentary from the same biased people and typically one person of a different opinion who is made out by the others to be a villain as to further "confirm" the viewers bias... They only care that it backs up their opinion.

[Darkfairie17]

I agree with you on the smoking bit, and bottled water. I usually only drink bottled water if I forget my water bottle. I've been making more of an effort to remember to take it with me so I don't have to get bottled water.

But the news on tv thing doesn't work for me. Sure it's nice to have a news station on tv. But I don't have cable, and I can't justify paying for basic cable. There's not enough stuff I would watch. I would rather just hope I am getting the news I want to see, or seek out news headlines online.

[Fathoms77]

For the first, it's an addiction. There are multiple reasons why people start smoking, of course, but once addicted, rationale and common sense take a back seat; that's what addiction IS.

As for the second, it depends very much on where you live, and the kind of bottled water we're talking about. There are certain types of bottled water specifically designed for various purposes; i. e., higher alkali content, more electrolytes, etc. Mainstream stuff like Poland Spring is basically pointless when compared to some tap water, but while well water can be excellent, city water can still suck, depending on the city in question. GOOD bottled water can indeed be superior depending on environment.

[Saoirse_Nua]

1. I totally agree 100%
2. Brings back a funny memory of being in a hotel with my father years ago and someone ordered bottled water, it was just getting trendy at time , it was close to the price of a beer, I can still remember my dads face when he was told
3. I disagree there is something nice about getting the analysis from the TV or a Newspaper instead of just skimming it off an internet news feed - I would probably get news look at it from my bias, the other bias on the net then look at TV and papers for further analysis.

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

I like the idea of smoking. Not gonna lie, but the cancer, addiction, lingering smell and shit are sorta reasons I'm not trying any of that shit

As for water, it's more dependent on where you are. Some countries and cities sorta need it, like Mexico or flint. But I don't know why my mom still buys water bottles. Actually, I know why, but it's pointless

As for the news thing, tv news is actually better depending on what you're watching, 24 hour news cycles is toxic dumpster fire, besides certain things like Anderson cooper 360. The problem is with the Internet you can find stupid shit and people pass it off as news and monkeys believe it. Just look at the stupid opinions on this site. People spit shit out that wouldn't even pass for a middle school research paper, yet they emphatically believe and justify it

[peachblossomluck]

There is something un nicotine which helps alieviate some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. I can't watch TV news because my son and I will sit and clown on the newscasters, claiming this one looks like an alien and that one has a head like a pumpkin etc.. I drink whatever water seems safe.

[Library]

I don't understand these either.
TV: It's outdated, there's always the internet and netflix
Smoking: stupid decision and may not kill you right away but still not a healthy choice. Results in bad lungs, smelly clothes, bad breath, bad teeth and all other shit.
Bottled water: that's bad for the environment. like the waste ends up in the wrong places and they steal water from the environments that need the water.

[anonman32]

i agree with all of these. i dont smoke, i use a reusable water bottle every day although the water goes through a carbon filter to filter out chemicals that dont need to be in my body and i dont watch the news either.

good mytake man.

[JenSCDC]

Smokers smoke because nicotine is highly addictive. Smokers start to smoke because they're idiots.

[Zorax]

Great Take, I still wonder why some people do these things...

[Prof_Don]

Not all bottled water is created equal. Some of it IS tap water, some of it is extra filtered & processed so the water has been "changed".