MEME OF THE MOMENT: MOSQUITO RINGTONE GENERATES ITS OWN BUZZ

By C. Antonio Romero

SAN FRANCISCO, 14 JUNE 2006—Say "mosquito" and most people think of the insects that descend on many parts of the United States and Europe each summer, emerging from any pool of standing water where their larvae hatched, to seek their customary blood meal. (In some parts of the world, of course, the mosquito is no mere nuisance; malaria today is every bit the scourge it ever was, in parts of Africa and Asia.

However, among teenage cell-phone users, the meme of the moment would appear to be the "Mosquito Ringtone", a downloadable ringtone meant to be too high-pitched for adult ears to hear.

Inspired by the use of sounds beyond the range of human hearing to repel animals, the Mosquito tone found its primary application as a repellent noise meant to drive teenagers away.

However, this sonic weapon from the U.K. evolved into a dual-use technology, as teens discovered they could use the sound with their cell phones, as a ringtone that their teachers could not generally hear.

This technological advance has allowed for clandestine classroom communications of a sort—to alert them to incoming voicemail and SMS text messages, in a twenty-first century equivalent for passing notes around the room.

Can they answer these incoming messages? Probably not, or not easily—teacher may be a little deaf, but probably not blind. But it's important, no doubt, for teens to know that they're popular enough to receive frequent messages—and to have the other teenagers in the room know it. A steady stream of incoming messages does wonders, no doubt, for the adolescent reputation.

By now, the special tone—a simple 17-kilohertz buzz—is all over the internet, being downloaded, converted into MP3 sound files, played on cell phones and PCs, being emailed, and sent from person to person, as with so many viral videos and other Internet phenomena.

No doubt this high-pitched ear worm will run its course, burrowing through adolescent brains soon enough, and passing unnoticed by most of those over 30. Those who can still hear such noises will have to grit their teeth and bear it, in the meantime. And when it passes, the world will still have the real mosquito to deal with.

But for now, the Mosquito Tone quite literally generates its own buzz, of a sort that the originators could never have imagined (and will probably not profit from, much). Such is the way of the Web.

Can Culturekiosque's audiophile readers hear the mysterious Mosquito Tone, whatever their age? Download our version of the tone as a WAV file or as an MP3 file and find out!

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