Some kids in my school drop well over $100 on vaporizers (not even the ones you can also use for weed, I mean exclusively e-liquid shit) who have never even smoked actual cigarettes. They do it for looks and the rest of the school actually laughs at them. Now they're marginalized into this strange and angry group of posers, and not even the kids that smoke cigarettes are looked down on as badly. It's just something to do unless you're kicking a habit or taking a safer alternative to your habit. It's boredom.
Wait... People actually think it looks cool? I don't smoke, and never have. My entire life I've been surrounded by people that vilify smoking, and yet somehow I think smoking cigarettes looks cool. E-cigs thought? Nope. Completely ridiculous. I'm amazed at how popular they are. I can think of three stores in my city that specialize in them.
Like the article says, it's a pretty new thing among teenagers. This contradicts what pabs has said, but in my school it's definitely a big trend. No one I know of has been judged for smoking an e-cig too harshly, and there's definitely no exclusion going on...but that's just the difference in school and location.
I think they somehow tie in nicely to the whole "steam punk" aesthetic. I think that while genre looks ridiculous, but to each their own.