City Journal Article
A Wave New World
Students looking for help focusing try plugging in.
By Courtney Cox
As college kids pack for fall—their calculators, their Ritalin and Adderall—they may want to save room for a new study aid: The A/V Stim MindSpa, an electronic contraption that claims to enhance a user’s brain waves.
The MindSpa looks like a Discman with a pair of shades attached. According to the manufacturer, it works through a combination of lights and sounds that “provide enhanced mental activity.” Just 21 minutes, three times a week, is said to do wonders for the most abject GPA.
With its incessant flickering and dial-tone drone, being plugged into one feels like walking into a New Age disco. After a try, you feel something. Maybe smarter. Certainly not any more stupid (that is, if you haven’t ponied up $200 to buy one).
A/V Stim president Larry Minikes is planning to develop a new model that allows kids to study while hooked up—occasionally switching to the “deep alpha relaxation” mode, presumably to catch some shuteye during the boring bits.
The MindSpa looks like a Discman with a pair of shades attached. According to the manufacturer, it works through a combination of lights and sounds that “provide enhanced mental activity.” Just 21 minutes, three times a week, is said to do wonders for the most abject GPA.
With its incessant flickering and dial-tone drone, being plugged into one feels like walking into a New Age disco. After a try, you feel something. Maybe smarter. Certainly not any more stupid (that is, if you haven’t ponied up $200 to buy one).
A/V Stim president Larry Minikes is planning to develop a new model that allows kids to study while hooked up—occasionally switching to the “deep alpha relaxation” mode, presumably to catch some shuteye during the boring bits.
Originally published in Boston magazine, September 2006
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