Report: Teens Using Digital Drugs to Get High

These April Fools jokes are getting more clever -- the date says July 15!<p>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.<p>Let's all eat bread and water, frown, reproduce via test tubes, work for the man, and vote Republican!

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

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.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine#Motivation_and_pleasure" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine#Motivation_and_pleasur...</a><p>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.

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. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en1asB1haQM" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en1asB1haQM</a><p>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.<p>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.

"Could indicate a willingness to experiment."<p>Oh God no. Children with <i>open</i> minds?! That could lead them to think for themselves!

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

Hey, Hiro, you want to try some Snow Crash?<p>(I'm a little ashamed to make this reference, but it seemed apposite)

So someone finally found a way to market Binaural beats as something cool instead of something for nerdy hippies?<p>Still, good for a laugh, I guess. 10 points for every teenager that can freak out their parents with this.

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.

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

A /. commenter wrote some real funny satire about this: <a href="http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1720732&#38;cid=32915318" rel="nofollow">http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1720732&#38;cid=329...</a><p>"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."

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

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

Kids these days are so good at trolling their parents.

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?<p>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.

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?

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.

Of course this is an Over-The-Top story, but as a language and idiom junkie I love the tag "digital drugs"<p>Catchy. I expect to hear more of it.

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

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

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

oh, come on!

It's great fun and all but:<p><i>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.</i><p>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.