h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm curious as to what effect the consumption of caffeine by scads of pre-pubescent western children will do to our McCulture. Will it further the trend of shortening attention spans begun by TV and Nintendo, or will the ritalin like effect of the caffeine balance it out? Feel freakin' free to share experiences with the drug and your hypotheses.

Also, living in canada (the grow room for the northern US), I'm interested in your input as to how the rising mean THC content of Marijuana is affecting the development of our society, if at all.

I'm specifically inviting comment on how the use of these drugs alone and/or in concert will alter the outcome of western civilization. I'd prefer references to actual experience, I.E. this is gonzo biosociology, Phreaks. The end goal of this is a decent guide entry.

Phreakin thanks, eh?

Voodoo Zimbabwe
Toronto.

Another Toronto native phreak, kool. However I'm leaving T.O, for NYC again, so....

As for the caffeine idea, interesting. Though I think pong, atari and the commedore game systems started the trend toward short attention spans( they may be before some of your time). As for youngsters wigging out on caffeine, Unless they are drinking non-stop the crash will turn them into zombies.(IMHO)

The rising content of THC is still nothing compared to that of countries like Amsterdam adn the more liberated contries in Europe. And considering that the Canadian justice dept. is considering making possesion a misdemeanor and no longer a criminal offence, I can't see it having anything but a positive affect on the arts culture.

I haven't smoked in years, but when I did I was more active and always on the go. Smoke before a SK8 session and run for hours, or I'd sit and read any book I could get my hands on.

(p.s. McDonalds really sux, the only fast food I eat anymore is pizza(which contains all the major food groups so it's healthy) and Wimpy burgers, 16 oz of flame broiled beef ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, heart attach rocket coming down the throught YEEHAA

LOts of coffee companies are targeting the 12-18 year old demographics, with their frappucinos and what not. Its the increased chronic consumption, and what it does to a nation's collective psyche that I'm curious about. The nazi regime had a huge amphetamine consumption, hitler himself injected 4 times daily. not that I'm drawing parallels by resting the blame for the nazis totally on a substance abuse problem, there was a lot more to it than that.

Having lived in holland, I would say that canadian weed on the street is stronger than dutch at the same price point, but lacks the bouquet of some of the choice varieties available in the coffee shops. The quality of pot elsewhere, UK, belgium, france, etc. is terrible in comparison.

In the netherlands, the selection, and guarantee of what you're getting, is a VERY nice touch: "I'll have 2 grams of thai stick please" and that's excatly what you got for 12 guilders a gram. I love the dutch.

The pot in Victoria, BC, though is still the best in terms of strength, aroma, and taste.

However, this is all somewhat peripheral to what I'm trying to glean from this, which is:

How will the trend towards higher consumption of caffeine and marijuana affect future development of our culture?

NB: I remember pong, atari, commodore 64, and Vectrex.

I didn't mean you in specific when I mentioned atari etc.. but there are a lot of younger people here who were born after the introduction of nintendo, sega...

I will take your word for the strength of T.H.C in Canada vs. othere countries as I only know by second hand info on what other countries pot is like.

As for the future development of our culture, I feel that most people will self regulate themselfs as to the amount of chemicals ingested as the effects are more readily available today than ever. Of course there will always be a small precentage of people that will crumble under advertising, and believe that "more is better" attitude. Unfortunatly, unlike the sixties and the increase L.S.D use, caffeine and T.H.C wont bring about any major contributions to any culture. The one exception is the proliferation of coffee house critics, which will be no different than the doughnut shop people of the eighties. All lot of uninformed people who's only source of current events are those who have to ride public transit or walk a long way to the cafe.

Interesting...
Perhaps everyone will become like me i.e. completely immune to the effects of caffeine. I drink coffee all the time and yet have never gotten hyper on it. Maybe that's the way forward.
I apologise, I have nothing useful or interesting to bring to the debate (being completely uniformed on drugs etc).
Wait, I lie. I'm one of the slacker gen, brought up on Nintendo and Saga, and I find that my attention span (regarding things I'm not particularly entertained by) entirely depends on how important a thing is. For instance, I've never had any problem with concentrating in school, the notable exception being assemblies, which are generally insignificant. Whether this is true for all people I don't know, my point is that my concentration span hasn't been adversely affected in any discernable way by my being a pop-culture junkie.

Well my attention span depends on how interested I am about the particular(my bad spell) topic. When I am writing HTML code I will drink on average three cups per hour, and the only effect it has on me is gut rot.. If I am intrigued by the topic, T.V show, play... I will have no lose of attention. If I find the subject boring , nothing will keep me from changing my focus. I really think that it depends on the person and importance that the particular subject has for the indivitual.

Pop-culture is so interesting that no matter how much caffeine or T.H.C you have in your system, you cannot help to be entranced by it unless you're brain dead.

Just my opinion

Ditto on the pop-culture thing...
Course the real problem comes when you're trying to focus on something really important and you find yourself working out future plot lines for TV shows

Plot lines for T.V.? Think bigger think movies, or world domination!

*g*
World domination? Gimme time to get through high school first...