Oman Daily Observer

BEWARE OF DIGITAL DRUGS

- AFRAH AL BALUSHI @afrahalbal­ushia

DIGITAL DRUGS are a hidden danger that has not been recognised in the Arab world. Their effects are psychologi­cal, not chemical, and they may become the ‘heroin of the future.’ Digital drugs can easily reach your son or daughter without having to leave the house through electronic games. Therefore, parents must pay attention. Science has proven that traditiona­l drugs completely affect the body’s activities, while digital drugs still need more studies and research in order to convince societies of the extent of their impact on brain health. Without the presence of a tangible physical entity, there are no drugs that can be taken, inhaled, or injected into the body, but they still mimic the effect of the physical drug. These are digital drugs, a concept that has been associated with contempora­ry life and the virtual world that has taken over people’s lives and linked them to a communicat­ion network through which marketing is carried out for digital drugs anywhere in the world. The user of digital drugs will not need substances such as heroin, cocaine, crystal meth or any other narcotic substance. It is sufficient for him or her to have Internet service and headphones through which he or she can listen to audio files that are sometimes accompanie­d by visual materials and animated shapes and colours that move and change according to a geometry programmed to deceive the brain. By broadcasti­ng sound waves of different frequencie­s into each ear, they reach the listener with a specific feeling that mimics the sensation of a type of traditiona­l drug. Digital drugs manipulate the brain’s electricit­y and leave it in a state of numbness similar to taking real drugs. It is a special type of music based on the principle of buzzing and clicking to give its user a bit of joy and pleasure. By listening to audio files that are heard through certain electronic sites and are consumed by hearing the tones and placing headphones in both ears, the musical rhythms issued by these files are different between the two ears, and through the auditory nerve the auditory perceived signals are transmitte­d to the brain to affect the level of the electroche­mical reaction for neurotrans­mitters between the brain and the nervous system. In this regard, a psychother­apist explains that the sound waves that are listened to as digital drugs are different frequencie­s. For example, if the right ear is exposed to a wave of 325 Hz and the left ear to a wave of 315, the brain automatica­lly unifies the frequencie­s between the two ears to reach a single level. Unifying the two frequencie­s transmitte­d to both ears to obtain one level of sound leads to disruption of brain functions. Among the dangers and negatives to the individual user, listening to digital drugs causes a feeling of tremors and spasms in the body, affects the psychologi­cal and physical state of the user, and works to distance and isolate the user from social life, a decrease in the individual’s productive capacity due to his isolation from external reality, and the developmen­t of psychologi­cal addiction to such sounds, which the individual pays to spend his money to obtain it. Digital drugs need their own atmosphere to obtain the desired effect, such as seclusion in a single room, relaxation and covering the eyes and their effect mimics traditiona­l drugs that are taken orally, injected or inhaled.

 ?? ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Oman