F E AT U R E
based on viewing the world through the
Structural Functionalist Perspective,
another telescope is the lens you could
use to view society from a Symbolic
Interactionist Perspective, the last
telescope allows you the opportunity to
view the world below you through the
Conflict Perspective. All in all, there are
three main visionary windows for
viewing and interpreting the society in
which you occupy in an imaginative and
innovative fashion, hence assisting the
development of your overall opinion
about how you see the world.
Given the development of the simple act
of vaping slowly, but surely transforming
into such a threatening social issue,
we must analyze the theoretical
perspectives of Sociology. In one of the
textbooks I used to implement in the
courses I taught in college, Sociology
in Modules , the author writes, “Think
of society as a living organism in which
each part of the organism contributes to
its survival. This explanation sums up the
Structural Functionalist Perspective,
which emphasizes the way in which
the parts of a society are structured to
maintain its stability” (Schaefer 2011:15).
One of the primary contributors to this
theory was Talcott Parsons, a Sociologist
from Harvard, who basically saw society
as a vast network of connected parts,
92 ISSUE 04 VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE
each of which helps maintain the system
as a whole. This is extremely relevant
to consider when reflecting on the
Sociology of Vaping and for countless
reasons. Parsons’ Functionalist approach
was that if an aspect of social life does
not contribute to a society’s stability
or survival if it does not serve some
identifiably useful function or promote
value consensus among members of
society it will not and should not be
passed on from one generation to the
next (Schaefer 2011:15).
Vaping has the potential to marginally
disrupt economic stability, then again,
what if vaping plays a much larger role
than we anticipate? What if vaping
could greatly affect the economic status
of capitalist culture to the extent that it
could possibly launch mass amounts
of our ow n people into impoverished
conditions, increasing the poverty level
tenfold? Could it? Well, for starters,
vaping could indefinitely replace a vast
amount of smoking cessation
pharmaceuticals and it has the potential
to replace traditional tobacco cigarettes
altogether. These products belong to two
of the most powerful industries in the
world: Big Tobacco and Big Pharma. If
these two industrial powerhouses, each
with nearly infinitely existing revenue
streams which control a number of vital
portions of society, literally were forced
to drastically decrease their financial
earnings, there could be some sort
of an economic meltdown among the
westernized world, causing a mass
destabilization of our capitalist economic
structure. It wouldn’t merely consist of
Vaping has the potential to marginally disrupt economic
stability, then again, what if vaping plays a much larger
role than we anticipate? What if vaping could greatly affect
the economic status of capitalist culture to the extent that
it could possibly launch mass amounts of our own people
into impoverished conditions, increasing the poverty level
tenfold? Could it?