
Report: Teens Using Digital Drugs to Get High - mattmichielsen
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/digital-drugs/
======
jrockway
These April Fools jokes are getting more clever -- the date says July 15!

Before we know it, things like eating and sex will be "the same as" doing
drugs, because people enjoy it. Oh, and the same with your morning coffee.

Let's all eat bread and water, frown, reproduce via test tubes, work for the
man, and vote Republican!

~~~
epochwolf
I think you misunderstand how Republicans view sex.

* It's something you don't talk about (or do) in polite company or around kids.

* It's something you don't do with someone you're not married to. (And by God you better to married to the opposite sex)

* It's implied that if you are married you must be having sex on at last a weekly schedule.

* I won't got into details but anything beyond the basics is strictly forbidden. (Candles are only allowed for mood lighting.)

:) All tongue in cheek of course.

~~~
tiles
If you're stereotyping, then you'd only be having sex to procreate, not
weekly.

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anigbrowl
Wired really should know better. This non-issue is ~3 years old:
<http://www.google.com/trends?q=i-doser>

Being an audio engineer, I've been playing around with binaural beats since
the mid-90s. they strike me a useful meditation aid, but then so does low-
volume pink noise. 'I-dosing' is about as thrilling and dangerous as yoga,
which is to say hardly at all.

~~~
jamesjyu
It's pretty obvious here that this article is poking fun at all the
sensationalism:

 _Perhaps most importantly, what will happen if the kids move onto harder
stuff like Steve Reich, Philip Glass or even Janet Cardiff’s installation,
“The Killing Machine“?_

~~~
anigbrowl
I got that; my objection is to giving a 'silly season' story undeserved
further momentum, implicitly endorsing its novelty. Of course, publishers
always need some standby material to fill the 'news hole' between the ads -
'slow news day? No scandals? oh well...run a teen panic story then.'

This over-reliance on filler material is one of the things I dislike about old
media. Since newspapers and broadcast news are anchored in time, recycled and
anniversary stories have some utility in that they'll be new to enough of the
audience to justify occasional repetition. But on the internet where
information is mostly persistent, it's high time to abandon this capsule
approach and move towards extending and updating a single story - a bit more
along the lines of Wikipedia, but preferably without the opaque editing
fiefdoms.

Part of my grumpiness stems from ongoing annoyance at content farming and a
degrading signal:noise ratio. The internet feels constipated to me now in a
way that seems to happen about every 6 years or so.* So I've got a spiffy new
beta interface for Google News - yay; but their deployment of Caffeine means
that my news feed contains more and more populist rubbish (like this i-dosers
story).

Oh, and get off my lawn :-)

* the good part of that is the opportunities for disruption. Past information logjams were broken up by the arrival of HTML/Mosaic; Google search; and client-side web apps.

~~~
rsingel
Wow. Next time, I'll make sure to write an encyclopedia article rather than a
tongue-in-cheek takedown, now that I know the latter isn't allowed on the
internet.

By the way, have you ever read the Threat Level blog where this was published?
It's definitely a content farm, but we grow some damn fine kumquats.

~~~
anigbrowl
I read Threat Level frequently, and generally like it. Other than the first
sentence, my post above is not about you: it's about old media and my
perception of internet trends in general. One day you too will share my
blighted, joyless perspective.

------
recampbell
Couldn't the placebo effect -- the expectation of a high -- lead to dopamine
being released in the brain? Like any other pleasurable experience, it would
lead to an increased desire for similar experiences, and an increased
tolerance to the pleasure (dopamine) received. It seems arguable that this
could form an addiction.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine#Motivation_and_pleasur...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine#Motivation_and_pleasure)

However, I have a hard time seeing this as a gateway drug any more than ice
cream is a gateway drug. Both produce a dopamine response, but no one worries
about kids getting on cocaine after eating an ice cream Sunday.

~~~
rbanffy
Sound has been used to induce trance and mystical experiences since very early
in history. Usually it involves religion, which is usually far more damaging
than music as it demands the suppression of critical thinking.

I can tell you that <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en1asB1haQM> was an
interesting experience (in particular the transition that starts at 1:40)
sitting down with volume in moderate levels on ordinary earbud-style phones.
Lying down in sort-of sensory deprivation, it could be more so.

BTW, I would like to share a heavier drug I used at a local TED conference.
Enjoy it while it's legal:

<http://www.tedxsaopaulo.com.br/vitor-araujo-sub/>

------
harshpotatoes
I had to listen to the "Gate of Hades" track they link in the story in order
to attempt to figure out what an i-dose is. I'm old and I'm not even 25 yet,
damn kids. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en1asB1haQM>

If they're paying for this, I don't think they're getting their money's worth.
Just get some nice sennheiser's, pop in some Court of the Crimson King. and
lie back.

Secondly, this news report is far more brilliant than the Fox news report on
the "SexBox" , so I'm glad today's high schoolers still know how to push the
buttons of their parents and the surrounding community.

------
sjs
"Could indicate a willingness to experiment."

Oh God no. Children with _open_ minds?! That could lead them to think for
themselves!

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ax0n
I've been using binaural audio, "theta" inducing frequencies and other "audio
drugs" for meditation for the better part of a decade. There are many places
to find this stuff for free online (legally) and once you understand how it is
supposed to work, you can throw stuff together in Audacity or Garage Band if
you feel compelled to do so.

Some people are particularly sensitive to audio and visual stimulation that
can create relaxation, disortientation, and other sensations. This is not
news.

------
jff
Hey, Hiro, you want to try some Snow Crash?

(I'm a little ashamed to make this reference, but it seemed apposite)

------
kilian
So someone finally found a way to market Binaural beats as something cool
instead of something for nerdy hippies?

Still, good for a laugh, I guess. 10 points for every teenager that can freak
out their parents with this.

------
powrtoch
Someone (possibly me, depending on what I end up doing tonight) should run a
test. Tell Person A (preferably the gullible type), using lots of really
convincing-sounding technobabble like "attenuated with the dopamine IDT
frequency in human brain waves" explain this to a friend, then have them try
it. Tell Person B (if he can't tell for himself) how stupid the whole thing
is, and have him try it. Report results.

------
powrtoch
Another thought: if someone already believes that mp3s can get you high, you
can probably make some serious money selling them "top shelf" FLACs.

------
stratospark
A /. commenter wrote some real funny satire about this:
[http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1720732&cid=329...](http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1720732&cid=32915318)

"If you find literature on Fourier Analysis, Electronics or Calculus in your
child's bedroom, please get your child to Oklahoma and get them help from the
nearest minister."

------
growt
Reminds me of this "binaural beats" new-age thing.

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mrcharles
This reminds me of the scene in Go, when fake drugs are sold to a bunch of
kids. At least I think it was Go.

"Do you feel it? It's reaaaaaally mellow... you gotta really focus"

~~~
ovi256
Well, if it makes kids practice concentrating, it's kinda _useful_ right ?

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greenlblue
Kids these days are so good at trolling their parents.

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apower
WTF's wrong with stupid adult media?! What's next? Food as drug to get high?
Sex as drug to get high? Seem these people really hate other people having
fun. Or is it just another way to FUD more money into law enforcement?

I tell you what digital drug is. Digital drug is the sensational news media
that got the vast people hooked on their news addiction. They surely should be
banned.

------
Rhapso
Music can alter your mental state, and even if these kids are tripping to good
tunes, Should we be worried? Then again humans have been using psychotropic
drugs for millennia and we think they are bad. Music and Drugs have been a
normal part of human culture since we started this whole culture thing. What
changed?

~~~
willfully_lost
It's an interesting question. I imagine a lot of it has to do with our current
world view. I think a lot of people have a tacit understanding of how fragile
it is.

The psychedelics for example aren't illegal because of any harmful physical
effects - they're some of the safest drugs we know of, physically. They're
illegal because of the world dissolving experience you might have on one. For
a people like us who have built up an elaborately abstract way of viewing our
world, this is quite threatening.

I think it can also speak about why something like marijuana is still illegal
yet caffeine is a daily sacrament for us - one makes you go even faster and
work even more, the other makes you fairly uninterested in such things.

------
ax0n
See also: Mitch Altman's "Brain Machine" (seen in Make Magazine) which uses
binaural beats as well as pulsing LEDs to mess with your head. I like it. Some
people think it's a bit too intense.

------
DanielBMarkham
Of course this is an Over-The-Top story, but as a language and idiom junkie I
love the tag "digital drugs"

Catchy. I expect to hear more of it.

------
aw3c2
So, is this a) a marketing campaign for snake-oil, b) fear-mongering or c)
both as it makes money anyways?

~~~
mquander
What is the "this" you're referring to? If "this" is the Kansas local news,
then I'm pretty sure "this" is otherwise harmless fifty-year-olds who don't
know what the fuck all this crazy shit on the Internet is.

------
ddm
Wow. Banning iPods at schools because of this? Surely teachers must realise
this is all bullshit?

~~~
lallysingh
Why would the teachers in an area be any different than parents? They're often
parents themselves.

------
gojomo
What if it's an early field test of a YGBM weapon?

------
morazyx
oh, come on!

------
bluedanieru
It's great fun and all but:

 _Kansas’ Mustang Public School district isn’t taking the threat lightly, and
sent out a letter to parents warning them of the new craze. The educators have
gone so far as to ban iPods at school, in hopes of preventing honor students
from becoming cyber-drug fiends, News 9 reports._

And of course this is sensational bullshit reporting at a 6th-grade level, but
while we're at it, that's what led to Reefer Madness as well. Take this kind
of lunacy as a serious threat, and if you meet someone who seriously believes
this shit irl, I humbly suggest you punch them in the face.

