Lucas Pelfrey Miss Dowling English 104 Section 47 Ball State Smokers Club College is a time of exploration and

discovery. For many people college is where they discover who they are and the characteristics that will define who they are as an individual. According to Thomson, Coronado, Chen, A. Thomson, Halperin, Jaffe, McAfee, Zbikowski in a journal article titled Prevalence and characteristics of smokers at 30 Pacific Northwest colleges and universities, College is an important transition period during which young adults explore tobacco use (Thomson et al. 429). For many people it is the first time in their life that they are on their own, away from home, and free to make their own decisions. Because most students lived with their parents their whole life until college, they are able to do things that were once forbidden. Choosing to smoke is one of those decisions that college students have the opportunity to make when they leave home and go to college for the first time. Conrad, Wardle, King, and de Wit state in Relationship of Self-Reported and Acute Stress to Smoking in Emerging Adult Smokers, Emerging adults, aged 18 to 25 years have the highest rates of tobacco smoking of any age group in the United States, and exhibit steady increase in smoking behavior and nicotine dependence during this developmental period (Conrad et al. 710). There are students that choose to smoke at every college including Ball State University. Thousands of Ball State students and faculty choose to smoke. However, smoking has become a challenge for some because of newly implemented rules that have banned the use of all tobacco products on campus. These new rules may be convenient for the people who do not wish to be exposed to second hand smoke but form a challenge for Ball State smokers. Due to these new rules the students and staff have been faced with a few decisions on what they can do.

They can smoke in their cars with the windows rolled up or smoke at an off campus location. Many students do not have a car on campus or do not wish to smoke in it so they smoke at an off campus location. One of the most popular places that some students and faculty choose to smoke at is the alleyway located off of Petty Road between the Robert Bell building and Lafollette Complex. Students and faculty can be seen smoking at all times of the day every day at the alley. Depending on the time of day there can be only a few smokers at the alley, but other times there can be over twenty. When I was faced with the decision to choose a community to observe for my ethnography one of the first communities that I thought to observe were the smokers at the alley. I do not smoke so I had never been to the alley before I started doing my observations for my ethnography. I expected the alley to be a place where people just did their business and left but I was surprised to find out that it was more than that. It is actually an exceptionally social environment and this brought me to the question Is smoking a social activity? from my observations and interviews I concluded the answer to be yes. Primary Research The first time I visit the alley is January 20, 2014 around 4:50 pm. It is twenty seven degrees outside and it is windy so it feels even colder. I have a heavy coat on, with gloves, a winter hat, and a scarf but I still cant help but shiver. The ground is still covered with a thick layer of fresh snow from when it snowed earlier this week and it makes it difficult and clumsy to walk. The alley is separated from campus by a chain link fence and a small strip of land. There are two five gallon buckets being used as make-shift trash cans overflowing with discarded cigarette butts and cigarette boxes. One is located at an opening in the fence towards the back of the alley and one is at the entrance of the alley.

When I first arrive at the alley I catch a brief whiff of what Im fairly certain is marijuana that disappears almost immediately. I see a few people bundled up in hats and coats standing in groups of two or three smoking and chatting towards the entrance of the ally occasionally checking their cellphones. I also see a few people standing and smoking alone, either too cold to spend time talking or uninterested in joining in on the conversation. Then a guy and girl notice me standing alone taking notes in a notebook and ask me what I am up to. I tell them I am doing observations for an ethnographic research project and the girl tells me about a similar project she did while studying abroad. After our brief chat I leave them and make my way over to a wooden guard rail at the end of the alley to sit. Then a few minutes later the girl leaves through the back entrance to alley and wishes me good luck on my project as she heads back to campus. A few moments after my brief chat I see a red car try to make its way through the alley and nearly get stuck in the thick snow and after several minutes the car miraculously makes it out. Then a couple minutes pass by and two guys show up at the entrance of the alley and start smoking. By this point I notice that more people smoke at the entrance to the alley than at the back of it. I can also tell this because the bucket at the front is much more full than the bucket at the back of the alley. The two men I see smoking both have tan skin and black hair and look like they are Indian or Middle Eastern. Then they leave and shortly after two women show up and take their place. The women are older and look like they are in their forties. They see me and I decide that I probably look strange taking notes on them, so I approach them and tell them what I am doing. I explain my project and they ask me what class my ethnography is for. I tell them it is for English 104 and they tell me that they teach English to foreign students in the Robert Bell building. We talk for a few minutes and they tell me many interesting things. To my surprise

they tell me that a lot of the foreign students are shy and that the ones that smoke at the alley are more likely to talk to non-foreign students than the foreign students that do not smoke. They also confirm my guess that the two men that smoked before them are Indian. Then after they leave a few other people come and go and after an hour of observing and taking notes I leave. As I leave I reflect on the many things that I witnessed and it becomes apparent to me that the alley is an extremely social environment because there were many more group smokers than solo smokers the people were also very friendly. My next observation takes place February 6, 2014 at 3 pm. It is an extremely cold winter afternoon and it is ten degrees outside with a slight breeze. The sun shines off of the fresh snow that covers the alley and makes it hard to see without squinting. One of the first things I notice is the loud chirping of birds that are taking shelter in the bushes at the back of the alley. I see a few groups of people smoking here and there and a few people smoking alone. I notice that the majority of people that choose to smoke in a group or socialize with other people are at the front of the alley while the people that smoke alone stay towards the back. I also notice that a lot more guys are smoking than girls. Then I see two girls walk into the alley through the back entrance in the fence and approach an Asian student and ask to borrow his lighter and he lets them use it. They thank him and make their way to the front of the alley and leave him to smoke alone. A few minutes go by and people come and go. Eventually there are only a few people left. At this point it is about thirty minutes into my observation and I see two guys that I know. We talk for a few minutes and I ask them some questions. I ask them if smoking makes people more social and he says that it does. He also tells me that he has met a lot of down to earth people at the smoke spot while smoking. I ask him if most people smoke in a group or

alone and he says that most people smoke in a group, but not everyone. Then they leave after they finish their cigarettes. Then I see a guy come and smoke by himself and after a couple minutes he is gone. It occurs to me after he leaves that the people that come alone are here for a much shorter amount of time than those who come in a group or join a group when they arrive. The people that come alone also usually only smoke one cigarette before they leave while the people that smoke in groups smoke up to two or three. My guess is that the people that smoke in groups get caught up in the conversations and smoke multiple cigarettes so that they have a reason to stay and continue talking. Several minutes go by and nobody comes and I am left by myself in the alley until eventually a girl comes to smoke shortly followed by the two Indian men that I saw on my first observation and they form a group. Then another guy arrives, but he does not join the group and starts to smoke alone. I approach the group to get a closer look and I see that the guy smoking alone has headphones in. After the girl leaves the two Indian men switch from speaking English to what I assume is Indian. Then three more Indian men show up and join them and they start talking extremely loud and excitedly in Indian. Then the two that arrived first leave and after about five minutes the other three leave and I am left alone in the alley once again until two more middle eastern gentleman arrive right before I decide to call it a day and head home. My third observation takes place on February 11, 2014 at 3pm. It is eleven degrees outside, but it feels warmer than my last observation because the wind is not blowing. Snow still covers the ground in the alley because it has not gotten warm enough for any of it to melt yet.

The first people I see are three of the Indian guys that I saw on my last observation. I also see one older gentleman with a white beard and wearing a red coat with a radio strapped to his belt. He smokes alone and does not socialize with the Indian men and after a minute or two I hear a voice over his radio and he quickly tosses his cigarette and leaves. I stand alone observing the people coming and going for a while and I notice not as many people have come to smoke today. There has not been as much social interaction or group smoking going on like there usually is and I think it is because of the lack of smokers that have visited the alley today. Then a guy in a white coat arrives at the back of the alley and starts smoking. A few minutes go by and a man with a large beard arrives and they start talking and I can tell that the two are friends. I cannot make out everything they say just some expletives. After the guy in the white coat leaves I approach the man with the beard and ask him a few questions. I ask him if he would rather smoke in a group or alone and he says he would definitely rather smoke in a group. Then I ask if he came to the alley alone if he would join a group of other smokers or smoke alone and he tells me that he joins groups all of the time. I also ask him if he prefers to smoke here rather than other places and he says that he prefers the alley because there are other people. His responses further solidify my beliefs that smoking is a social activity. When I finish talking to the man with the beard he leaves and I decide to go talk to a girl smoking alone at the front of the alley. We talk for a few minutes and one of the questions that comes up is why she started smoking and she says that she started smoking because her roommate smoked and then she got into it socially and got addicted. When we are done talking she says goodbye to me and leaves and so do I.

The next time I visit the alley is on February 12, 2014 at 2pm. It is nineteen degrees outside but it feels a lot warmer than usual today because the sun is shining and there is no wind. As soon as I arrive at the alley I see a big group of about ten people smoking and conversing. They all appear to be students besides one older gentleman that I assume is a professor. At this point I am standing in the back of the alley observing all of the people smoking at the front of it. I see a few familiar faces of people that I have seen smoking here before one of them is the man with the beard. After a few minutes I decide to join the big group of people smoking. I tell them what I am doing so I do not make them uncomfortable. As the large group slowly dissipates as people finish smoking the only two that are left from the group are the old man and the man with the beard. The older man isnt quite done smoking so the man with beard takes out another cigarette and offers to stay so he is not alone. The two men talk for a while and they both smoke several cigarettes in the process. While they talk I am able to find out that the older man actually is a professor. A few more people come over and join them and while they are all talking I become a topic of conversation. I explain that I am doing an ethnography and that I am observing the social habits of people that smoke at the alley. One of the men then states that he doesnt have any friends that he hasnt met at the alley. This leads me to believe that smoking allows people to come together and form friendships and bonds. Then a strange looking guy with blue hair and a shirt that says I hate everyone walks up to the alley passes everyone and smokes alone while trying not to make eye contact with anybody. I decide to leave and as I am walking away it occurs to me that I have been observing for over an hour, but the old man and man with beard are still smoking and talking, apparently too caught up in their conversation to realize how long they have been outside smoking. I estimate they have both smoked at least three or four cigarettes each.

My fifth observation takes place on February 13, 2014 at 3pm. Today it is a balmy thirty two degrees outside. The alley looks the same as it usually does, the ground is covered in snow and trash overflows from the buckets. As I walk over to my usual spot that I observe from towards the back of the alley I pass two Asian students speaking a foreign language. After they leave a group of Middle Eastern men that I have seen several times over the course of my observations arrive and start smoking at the front of the alley. They talk loudly and excitedly for several minutes in a language I cannot understand. Then a man arrives from the back of the alley and starts smoking alone and digging his boot in the snow. I do not think he knows the language of the Middle Eastern men either so he does not try to join their group. Shortly after a short blonde girl arrives and joins him and I can tell that they are friends from the way they talk. They finish smoking and leave and for a while nobody comes. Then all of a sudden a bunch of people show up and I assume it is because class is about to start or because class just let out. For a few minutes there was not a single person at the alley smoking alone. While everyone is talking I think to myself that a lot of the people here know each other. Then people start to leave and there is just one group of five or six left talking about science. A few people leave, but more people arrive and take their place in the conversation. Eventually there are only two men left and after one leaves there is only one man standing alone smoking in the alley. It is not long after his friend leaves that a girl arrives and sparks up a conversation with him. At this point I decide to leave after todays observation I really see that the alley is a very social environment. Making Conclusions

These days basically everyone knows the negative side effects from smoking and that it can cause cancer and other negative health problems. In Characteristics of Social Smoking Among College Students Waters, Harris, Hall, Nazir, Waigandt claim, Tobacco use, particularly cigarette smoking, is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States and is responsible for approximately 444,000 deaths each year (Waters et al. 133). This raises the question why would anybody want to smoke when it causes so many deaths? One of the reasons that people start smoking is for the social benefits. Study results have indicated that the social environment is an important factor in cigarette smoking. A social context has been shown to be an important factor in the initiation of smoking, as well as becoming an established smoker (133). Smoking is an extremely social activity and that the social benefits of smoking are a reason that many Ball State students smoke.