The Normalization of Vaping on TikTok (Published in Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2024)

This research examines how digital media shape identity, representation, politics, and public health. This paper, published in JMIR, focuses on the intersection of public health and digital platforms by analyzing how vaping is portrayed and normalized on TikTok. Using computer vision, natural language processing, and qualitative thematic analysis, we studied nearly 19,000 posts across 50 vape-related hashtags.

The findings show that influencers and lifestyle portrayals—beyond direct marketing—play a significant role in embedding vaping into everyday contexts. These subtle forms of representation normalize vaping and raise urgent questions about how young audiences perceive risk, identity, and health behaviors on social media.

• Presented in Society For Research On Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) 2024, Edinburgh, UK.

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