Topical Treatment.

Just to prove how "with it" I am, I thought I'd take a moment to discuss this new craze called digital drugs. For those not familiar with the term, let me break it down for you in as simple a way as possible. Digital drugs, or "iDosing" is the process of using simplistic, repetitious sounds emitted through headphones in order to stimulate certain parts of the brain thus getting you high. The sounds are often combinations of white noise, digital "whirring" or "screaming" and any variation of monotone notes being played continuously. Imagine the sound a fire truck or ambulance makes. Now imagine it doesn't change in pitch or volume, but instead holds one note for several minutes. That's what it sounds like.

Now the belief held by many people (young and old) is that this is sufficient enough to induce a drug-like effect on the mind and body. Teens are using it to get high, as I'm sure bizarre clubs in big cities all over the world are pumping this noise into their halls, providing "free highs" for their patrons.

I think there's really a few ways to look at this. The first and most obvious is that people are stupid. If you can convince enough people that a bizarre enough set of circumstances are providing a desired effect, they'll believe it. It's a combination of the placebo effect and mass hysteria. People are dumb this way, but certainly not alone in this mentality.

The second and perhaps most controversial way to look at this is that it's actually working. The brain is a very complex organ, and the possibility that a series of sounds are inducing highs is not to hard to believe. Epileptic seizures can be triggered by noises, as can migraines and many other neurological disorders. Our ears, eyes and brain rely on one another very closely and intense intrusions in any one of them can result in a response from the others. Something like synesthesia is a perfect example of this. So could simple audio files be causing hundreds of teens to get high? Sure, it's possible.

The last option that comes to mind is that it's been a while since parents have had something new to fear and needed to created a panic around something that wasn't there. For years and years the variety of drugs has remained relatively stagnant. There's a finite list of chemicals from marijuana to heroin that have existed for a while now. Sure there's variations therein, but otherwise not much of a change. Having something "new" and "exciting" to be terrified about really seems to be the boredom buster for white, upper middle class North Americans. We become confronted with one terrifying bit of news only to have it fade just in time for something else horrific to happen to our planet. The truth of the matter is that there's plenty of horrible things happening on a regular basis on Earth, we hardly need to fabricate any. Even within the realm of drugs there's horror stories to be told; the effects of meth and heroin, the violence inherent in the world of drugs and narcotics. If my child came up to me and said, "Dad I'm doing iDosing, and you can't stop me." I'd first laugh, and once I had stopped laughing I'd send him on his way. If that's the worst thing a parent ever has to hear their child say we should all be so lucky.

It's really a matter of perspective. People who live in comfortable living situations in countries like ours are rarely subject to the depths of human degradation. We can't start to fathom the lives of people in war torn countries. We can't understand the living conditions of women who have to subject their bodies to the perversions of patrons just so they can make enough money for another high. We're lucky, each and every one of us. If you've got the time and means to sit there and read this blog, then you've clearly got the luxury of a life and time than many don't.

My only concern about iDosing is that it actually made headline news.