#Vapelife: An Exploratory Study of Electronic Cigarette Use and Promotion on Instagram

ABSTRACTBackground: The growth of social networking services has enabled the sharing of electronic cigarette opinions and experiences via user-generated content. Objectives: This exploratory study analyzed electronic cigarette content found on the visual social networking service, Instagram, in order to highlight public health challenges created by this content and support understanding of electronic cigarette promotion and usage. Methods: A qualitative content analysis was performed on Instagram posts made with the hashtags #ecig or #vape in October 2014. Images, text, and hashtags from 85 posts (43 #ecig, 42 #vape) were analyzed. In addition, the total number of posts made with eight key electronic cigarette hashtags was recorded at four points between March 2014 and October 2015. Results: The total number of #vape posts on Instagram grew by 4,163,274 during the study period, while #ecig posts increased by 741,916. Of the posts examined in-depth, corporate users made up over half of posts. No posts were...