E-cigarette use in the United States has significantly grown in recent years. Widespread diffusion of e-cigarette content across social media communities may be contributing to this growth. In this study, we (1) explored topics related to e-cigarettes and vaping on Reddit and (2) examined the extent to which these topics clustered across distinct communities. We analyzed a total of N = 79,783 Reddit submissions posted between March 2017 and February 2018 that mentioned at least one e-cigarette or vaping keyword. We created a dictionary to classify submissions into seven different topics related to e-cigarettes and vaping. Submissions were also categorized into one of six mutually exclusive communities identified using subreddit meta-data. Our results indicate that e-cigarette and vaping content on Reddit is primarily about the buying and selling of e-cigarette products. Other common topics included how to build vaping devices, e-juice, and e-cigarette advice. Network correlation analyses found that the distribution of our seven identified topics varied significantly among general e-cigarette, drugs, and research/news subreddit communities. Findings from this study add to a growing literature investigating e-cigarettes and vaping on social media and also contribute to network-level theories by linking communities on Reddit to the diffusion of various depictions of e-cigarettes and vaping.

E-cigarette use in the United States has significantly grown in recent years (Cullen et al., 2018; Mirbolouk et al., 2018). A possible contributing factor to this growth may be how e-cigarettes are depicted on social media. Social media platforms serve as digital environments through which individuals can discuss their experiences using e-cigarettes (Allem, Dharmapuri, Unger, & Cruz, 2018). Such platforms also provide a medium for e-cigarette and vaping companies to advertise to current or potential users (Lazard et al., 2016). Therefore, analyzing social media can provide researchers with an opportunity to understand emerging public health trends that may not otherwise be captured through traditional research methods, such as self-report surveys (Althouse et al., 2015).

According to social cognitive theory (SCT), individuals observe and learn behaviors through images and symbols translated through both media and personal experiences (Bandura, 2009). Social media platforms act as repositories for persuasive media about e-cigarettes and for personal narratives about the benefits of e-cigarette use (van der Tempel et al., 2016). Greater exposure to persuasive narratives or advertisements about vaping on social media has been shown to influence vaping attitudes and intentions (Pu & Zhang, 2017). E-cigarette users who join digital groups about e-cigarettes or vaping, as well as those who are exposed to pro-vaping persuasive messages (e.g., personal testimonies, advertisements), are at an increased likelihood of developing negative attitudes toward quitting e-cigarettes (Phua, 2018). However, there is currently a gap in the literature examining how different digital groups may discuss e-cigarettes. If different digital groups highlight unique aspects of e-cigarette use (e.g., discussing health risks or offering purchasing recommendations), users who belong to those groups may have varying perceptions of the risks associated with vaping.

Digital groups can be considered a unique subset of a social network wherein the members of such groups are able to actively contribute to and seek information from other individuals in the group (Phua, 2018). Research shows individuals are more likely to share information about e-cigarettes on social media if they are current users or have favorable opinions about vaping products (Emery, Vera, Huang, & Szczypka, 2014). Moreover, studies suggest individuals connected through social media may bond through online e-cigarette discussions, which could normalize e-cigarette use (Allem et al., 2018).

Although findings from previous e-cigarette and social media research have been informative in describing emerging topics surrounding e-cigarettes and vaping (Lazard et al., 2016; van der Tempel et al., 2016), such topics tend to be assessed at the macro-level of social media. Network theories of social influence, as well as SCT, posit that repeated exposure to symbolic representations of behaviors—such as e-cigarette use—can influence how individuals understand and process said behaviors (Bandura, 2009; Perry, Pescosolido, & Borgatti, 2018). Participation in pro-vaping digital groups where users contribute and discuss e-cigarette-related content has been shown to influence e-cigarette attitudes and behaviors (Phua, 2018). To examine how digital groups may differ in their symbolic representations of e-cigarettes, this study sought to analyze content from Reddit.

Reddit is a popular social media site that allows users to interact with one another pseudo-anonymously through screen names in moderated, user-created discussion groups called “subreddits” (Meacham, Paul, & Ramo, 2018). Notably, these subreddits tend to be topic-specific (e.g., subreddits solely about vaping culture). Users who subscribe to these groups can choose to either post a submission to the subreddit, comment on an already existing submission, or reply to a separate comment of a submission.

A particular feature of Reddit is that users can cultivate a list of their favorite subreddits (i.e., digital communities) for quick access to top-performing submissions in those subreddits (Richterich, 2014). Thus, the submissions a user encounters are likely to be from preferred topical discussion groups. As such, Reddit could provide a useful environment for examining how distinct digital groups discuss e-cigarettes and vaping. For example, a subreddit dedicated to curating news stories may emphasize different e-cigarette topics than one comprising individuals discussing which particular brands of vaping devices they should purchase. The moderated nature of the subreddit, in which group members must adhere to community guidelines in order to contribute to the group discussion, provides an opportunity to examine how access to different user-created digital groups may influence the types of e-cigarette related topics that users are exposed to.

As Reddit is composed of a large number of distinct digital groups, researchers can assess the extent to which these groups may be similar or different to one another in their respective discussions about e-cigarettes. Examining topical “communities” or collections of subreddits dedicated to similar discussion topics could provide useful information for public health monitoring of communities that may share similar e-cigarette beliefs. Additionally, assessing which subreddits are most active in discussing e-cigarettes and the different topics about e-cigarettes that permeate throughout these subreddits could better inform future tobacco control efforts, such as prevention messaging campaigns. Thus, in this study we sought to (1) explore the topics related to e-cigarettes and vaping on Reddit and (2) examine the extent to which these topics clustered across discrete Reddit communities.

Conclusion This study expands on previous research investigating e-cigarette discussions on social media by describing how topics related to e-cigarettes and vaping cluster among distinct Reddit communities. Findings from this work speak to the importance of investigating digital communities when examining representations of e-cigarettes and vaping on social media when possible. Health researchers could use our findings to inform future tobacco control efforts, such as in the development of health communication prevention messaging that targets emerging e-cigarette and vaping trends. Future work may also wish to expand our findings by examining the extent to which topical differences among e-cigarette communities are influenced by individual users, such as opinion leaders.

Acknowledgements We thank Dr. Deen Freelon and Dr. Adam Saffer for their help with this work and Mr. Sheigh Freeberg for his careful reading of the article.

Authors’ Note

Barker and Rohde contributed equally to and have approved the final manuscript. Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. ORCID iD

Joshua O. Barker https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9571-0827 Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online at https://journals.sagepub.com/home/heb. Supplement Note

This article is part of the Health Education & Behavior supplement issue, “Advancing the Science and Translation of Digital Health Information and Communication Technology.” The printing and dissemination of the supplement was supported by the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, National Institutes of Health (Contract No. HHSN276201800167P). No federal funds were used in the development of these supplement manuscripts, and the views and findings expressed in them are those of the authors and are not meant to imply endorsement or reflect the views and policies of the U.S. Government. The entire supplement is available open access at https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/hebc/46/2_suppl.