A new, and somewhat bizarre, electronic cigarette has been developed in the United States that sends the user tweets. The device is linked to a person’s Twitter account and sends them messages about their usage habits in an effort to encourage them to quit smoking. It also sends tweets about the health and other benefits of quitting smoking. Furthermore, the invention is able to identify triggers for nicotine cravings, such as different times of the day or different activities. It is this informative aspect of the tweeting e-cigarette that probably has the greatest potential to aid people who are trying to quit smoking. As most smokers are well aware, smoking triggers are a key part of their addiction, and anticipating them and dealing with them is crucial to quitting successfully.

Another aspect of the new device is the public message that it sends to the user’s Twitter followers. The user has announced to the world that they want to quit and this puts a certain amount of pressure on them to follow through with their goal. It also enables their Twitter followers to offer encouragement and support. The new invention might also work by shaming the smoker into quitting.

The tweeting electronic cigarette was developed by a New York based creative agency called R/GA. One of the employees is an e-cigarette user and this gave someone the idea to link it with another popular recent phenomenon, namely Twitter, and see whether it could be marketed.

Some of the sample tweets are rather ambiguous and it is not entirely clear how they could help someone who wants to quit. One example is: “1 E-cig = 1 beer at Will’s place. 17 beers. Soon he’ll be on his butt.” Obviously, more effort needs to be put into the tweets if they are to truly help someone quit smoking with the aid of the new device.

The creators of the tweeting electronic cigarette are now searching for an e-cigarette company interested in manufacturing and marketing the product.