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Can You Hear This?

Go to this site and listen.

Apparently some UK shopkeepers, trying to control the teen traffic and gathering in front of their shops, setup a speaker that emits a high-pitch tone that only people under the age of 20 can hear.

According to NPR, the teens have struck back and have begun to use the tone for text message alerts without adults knowing what is going on. So wonderfully subversive.

Hat tip to my nephew Greg for alerting me to something I cannot hear (which gives him and his friends so much pleasure).

Comments

Anonymous said…
Does hearing that tone make us young at heart, or is it just bogus?
1:30 PM
Jonathan said…
I was reading a news article yesterday that stated that some are now offering a "ring tone" that is audible only to kids. They suggested that this will be especially useful during classes when the teacher will be unable to hear the notification.

You are right..."how wonderfully subversive."

j.
2:43 PM
Anonymous said…
Hey! At 47, I can still hear the tone. There are many other factors that affect hearing levels other than presbycusis (progressive loss of hearing due to aging), such as noise exposure, hereditary, medications, etc. So a cut-off at age 20 would be the stuff of "urban legend". In fact, in the iPod culture, there are likely many 20-somethings that can't hear the tone.

Yikes! Though I can hear the tone, I sound like an Old Fart.
3:25 PM
kurt_t said…
I'm with Kevin. I think the bombardment of noise that we're exposed to in the industrialized world is the primary cause for hearing loss.

I read somewhere years ago that some scientists went out and tested the hearing of people living in hunter/gatherer cultures in the Amazon or someplace like that, and they found almost no hearing loss amongst older people.

I try to be very protective of my hearing. In fact, I'm wearing earplugs right now because the street noise where I work drives me crazy.

And I'm sorry I just have to say this one thing. When I was a kid, trucks didn't beep at ear-splitting volume every time they backed up, and nobody I knew ever got run over by a truck.

NOBODY!!!

I just had to get that off my chest.
4:01 PM
Anonymous said…
I'm 38 and I can definitely hear it. In fact, it's kind of painful. Does it hurt anyone else's ears?

Tom D.
8:51 PM
Peterson Toscano said…
I think I read somewher that if you are over the age of 20 and you still hear it, then you are part dog.

So Tom, in dog years, that would make you 266.
8:57 PM
Steve Schalchlin said…
I could hear it, too! I would have thought that the way I have abused my ears in my 52 years on this planet, it would have been inaudible. *bark* *bark*
11:20 AM
Contemplative Activist said…
I can hear it!

Personally, I prefer the Australian approach
2:50 PM
Peterson Toscano said…
CA,
hahahahahaha!
2:52 PM
Anonymous said…
Ouch, that really hurts my ears O.o My dad can't hear it though, wierd.
11:31 PM
Nonsequitur said…
I have a very shallow understanding of the human hearing range, but I am 26 years old and can hear it too, despite moderate hearing loss.

And Contemplative, re: the Australian Approach... Didn't the UN declare a moratorium on that sort of inhumane noise pollution? Seriously, think of how badly that could harm people. Hehehe :-P
12:13 PM
john said…
Both Anita and I can hear it, but differently. To me it is quite loud, it sounds like the dissonant wistle electronic equipment like CRTs make. Anita said it instantly gave her a headache, and as I type this, she fears that I'm sending brain damage rays into her head.
8:23 PM
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