Billy Bong Joins a Digital Smoke Fest

So with the recent outbreak of COVID-19, people worldwide have been forced to stay indoors and minimalise human contact. The forced lockdowns, although stressful, have given birth to a completely new age of interaction that may have been around for years but never applied in such ways – such as the digital smoke fest!

Whether your a stoner or not I’m sure a small part of you either craves human interaction or misses it. Being the digital generation we have all turned to apps like Zoom, House Party, Facetime, and the old lady Google Hangouts to solve these needs with incredible support with people hosting book clubs, dinner parties and even massive 420 smoke outs – which I have both attended and hosted from the comfort of my couch!

The whole concept seemed rather lame at first if I’m honest, but then something changed. On day 2 my perspective changed, and whether it be my hardwired need for human interaction or my interest in the unknown, I will never truly know. But I’m grateful I looked past my preconceived idea after I’ve had the opportunity to connect with over 10 000 stoners from around the world! Sharing the spirit of Irie across the digital universe in support of isolation and all brought together through a similar deep love for cannabis – which I think truly encapsulates the concept of cannabis as a whole.

As for the functioning of our preferred app, House Party, it was pretty great for such a large amount of people on one chat. The quality is questionable in the higher number of users but great with about 10 to 15 people and rarely freezes or lags out which is great to see in a time like this. I do suggest caution to those with limited data as it does tend to be a little bandwidth-heavy in most cases, which is understandable when you have thousands within a chat.

After experiencing it myself I would suggest giving it a bash even if it is just for the banter.

So as always stoners – peace, love and success to you all during these hard times!