Analyzing over twenty thousand drug experience reports from the online portal Erowid, the authors argue that combining ethnographic methods with computational analysis of digital data, including big data, is highly productive. This approach reveals social and political aspects of drug use, drug phenomenology, and harm reduction, while also introducing anthropologists to user-based language and new research questions. The authors emphasize that deep ethnographic knowledge, which they call 'field groundedness', is essential for properly interpreting the resulting visualizations, advocating for a symbiotic relationship between ethnography and digital data analysis.
Microdosing mind-altering substances such as LSD and magic mushrooms is popular among young creatives, who report enhanced creativity, focus, and productivity. Using virtual ethnography, researchers analyzed users' narratives about their experiences, practices, and motivations with microdosing. They collaborated with participants on online drug-experimentation platforms to combine collective experiences while acknowledging individual expertise. A review of clinical trials comparing psychoactive substances like LSD with placebos provided a clearer picture of microdosing's benefits, how dosages are adjusted, and how users engage in "harm reduction from below" by sharing cautionary tales within the microdosing community. The work offers insight into how this practice develops as it gains popularity among laypeople and academic and scientific communities.