Can you hear this?

"The Mosquito"

A couple of months ago a middle school student asked me if I had heard about the new ringtone that only people under thirty can hear, thereby making it useful (she thought) to have on her phone, in school. The logic gets a little fuzzy here, because after all, even if I might be sort of deaf, I am not yet blind, and I would presumably notice when a student answered a phone and began to chat in class. She then suggested, with a little smile, that I go to a website and listen to the sound. So today, inspired by a news item out of Japan, I did take the sound test. Guess what kids? I could hear it.

Meanwhile, what was that news item from Japan? Well, some city officials wanted to keep teenagers from loitering in a park, so they have installed a "Mosquito" device, supposedly audible only to teens, that has the high-pitched, annoying whine of a mosquito. This little contraption works as a repellent, meant to break up crowds of teens. I was entertained by the manufacturer's alternative versions, devised for people who don't like the idea of blasting high-frequency sounds at youngster's heads. They offer a "mini mosquito" which only works up to 10 meters, suggesting it for "domestic use" (maybe for when you don't want the kids in the kitchen? Or something?) They also offer the "CSS Music Player" that broadcasts, not annoying mosquito sounds, but classical music! They hasten to say that it is only "royalty-free" classical music; would that be the cheapest, most irritating kind of classical music? And while such a device might repel many young folks, wouldn't it also attract a certain number? The weirdest teenagers of all, the kind who never sleep, standing around with little volumes of Sylvia Plath tucked under their arms? Creepy. Or worse yet, wouldn't it attract a crowd of 60-year-old loiterers, irritating everybody in sight by humming along with the music? Very creepy.


Can you hear like a teenager link.