The digital generation has a new “digital drug” called i-dosing, using binaural brainwave beats. The doser listens to two different sound waves with stereo headphones, which is then interpreted by the brain as another beat that sounds like it’s coming from inside your head. Some say it’s a rather other-worldy experience, while others say it doesn’t do anything.
Frankly, the issue here is not whether or not kids can really get “high” from i-dosing. The issue here is encouraging kids to seek a “high” at all. Does it matter if it works, or if it uses sound waves, or chemical drugs? No. It matters that kids of this generation are being told, “Hey, if you don’t like your mood, pay somebody to give you something to change it.”
The I-Doser website (to which I’m very reluctantly linking) says that that binaural brainwave beats “help the brain induce of [sic] state of mood lift, euphoria, sedation, and hallucination.” Is there a parent reading this that isn’t terrified by that statement? How are those results any different than those expected from using typical street drugs? This new digital drug is being touted as a safe alternative to doing those drugs. Crunch Gear writer Nicholas Deleon says parents’ fears of i-dosing leading to real drug use is just a bunch of hype and that it’s “Reefer Madness for the iPad generation.”
Really, Nicholas? How do you support that statement when the premier i-dosing website looks like this?
Nah, no leading to drug use there, buddy. Those pictures of legal bud, mood pills, and “legal” hash and a link to buy stuff at “dealer cost” must be hallucinations caused by my i-dosing.
Problem is, I didn’t dose, dude.
Comments
David Sobkowiak
July 22nd, 2010 - 11:52:11 AM
While I knew it was coming, I didn't think it would happen quite so soon or quite like this. As a parent, I find it disturbing that my kids could Turn On, Tune In and Drop Out while on the internet in a more substantial way than watching YouTube videos for hours or simply watching TV. I'm lucky though, because my kids don't use the internet with out one of their parents being in the room with them, and assisting them with the use of the computer and browser. Part of this is their lack of online experience, the other part is parental oversight in to what they are spending their time on. I'm not foolish enough to believe that the day will never come when my kids experiment with drugs, chemical or digital, but I hope by my actions and discussions with them today, that they would feel comfortable enough to talk to me about it when they are considering it. I know, kids don't tell their parents these things, but if, IF the opportunity to discuss it (busted at school, friend's parents, us) that they would do so.
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Travis King
July 22nd, 2010 - 11:58:12 AM
Interesting article. I think that for the most part it is media hype, though advertising with a drug angle certainly is something I disagree with. Most of the binaural tracks I've found are on YouTube and are set to relaxation music such as you would find in any gift shop or even department store—or to some small-time DJ's house or hip-hop beats. They were originally presented in the '70s as anti-anxiety therapy, and I've also seen them marketed as an aid for lucid dreaming. These are the uses that interest me. As far as "i-Dosing" goes, I'm left to wonder a couplr things. Why, more than 30 years after their introduction, are they suddenly being linked with drugs? And how does this sudden media frenzy affect both the actual problem of chemical drugs and the issue of music as counterculture? All that being said, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Even if your article does seem like another part of the media hype, it presents a facet I hadn't yet known about and does raise a good point about marketing in general and how youth are targeted by unscrupulous individuals out to make a buck.
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