Somewhere in the back of my mind, I recall some bit of hippie wisdom about “people over thirty.” Something about how kids aren't supposed trust them, or something like that. I wish I could remember, but when you get to be my age, things get sort of foggy.
But now there's proof you can't trust people over 30 – or maybe even 25! It turns out that there is a solid line separating the youth and adult races – the two can communicate and maybe even form friendships, but there is no question that kids and adults operate on different frequencies.
Literally. Here's the latest teen scam, where kids pull one over on adults: a cell phone ringtone that can be heard only by the junior set, used by youngsters to get around classroom regulations against having cell phones in class. Oh, the youth of today!
Actually, the evolution of the Mosquito Tone saga is a case of just desserts, considering that the thing was invented by adults to annoy unruly kids. The story goes back to last year, when a British inventor came up with a security device designed to keep teenagers from congregating in malls, taking up space and driving away the money-spending customers. The product, called the Mosquito, took advantage of a singularity that most adults (and kids) are not aware of: Certain high-frequency tones are apparently undetectable to the human ear after a certain age. Starting at about 20, scientists say, the human ear loses its ability to hear tones in the highest human-range freqencies (18-20 khz), and the older you get, the harder it is to detect these sounds.
But leave it to the kids to turn the tables. Apparently some teens in Birmingham (the inventor's hometown) got wind of what the company was doing, and decided to appropriate it for their own use: They created a cell phone ringtone called “Teen Buzz,” which has caught on like wildfire, first in the UK, and emigrating to the US over the past couple of weeks. With the tone, kids can keep their cell phones on in class to receive text messages, the bane of many teachers, who demand that cell phones be turned off in class. And, not one to miss an opportunity, the inventor of the original device made his own ringtone, which he sells via his Web site (“the official Mozzy tone”).
Ds@newzgeek.com