Perhaps a new trend or "cool thing to do," vodka eyeball shots are all the hype among college students.

(Creative Commons)

What are they? Exactly what they sound like.

Students pour vodka into their eyeballs in the hopes of feeling a more direct and immediate high. Many have recorded themselves doing so and then put the videos on YouTube.

The theory contrived by students is that alcohol can be absorbed through mucous membranes, like those that cover the eyeball and the inside of the eyelids.

David Granet, a professor of ophthalmology at UCSD said, “This is an activity that has no upside to it.” He says it doesn’t even get someone drunk but in fact just hurts the person's eyes.

Long-term effects have been associated with the phenomenon too. Melissa Fontaine, a 22-year-old from the U.K., says she participated in 'vodka eyeballing' throughout her college career and now suffers from a constantly watering sore eye.

In the U.K., students claim that the phenomenon induces feelings of drunkenness at record speed, providing an immediate high. The trend is believed to have started in England and spread to U.S. college campuses early this year. Some feel that websites like YouTube promote the activity.

University officials across the country are trying to provide educational programs to students that minimize the attention given to activities like vodka eyeballing through social media networks.

Reach staff reporter Samantha Federman here.

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