Sunday 5 August 2007

Between two worlds

It appears I exist in a place between two worlds... that of the 'old people' and that of the 'teenagers.'

A common problem faced by highschool teachers is the issue of mobile phones in class. A sneaky tactic in recent years is the "silent" or "mosquito" ringtone - a tone at a frequency too high for 'adults' to hear. The sound is like a high-pitched squeal, similar to what you hear when you turn on a TV before the sound comes on. Due to the natural shift of the human hearing range over time to lower frequencies, these sounds are likely to disappear from your range by your early to mid-twenties. You can of course speed up this 'degeneration' by lots of iPod use and exposure to loud sounds, or slow it by taking good care of your hearing - but it will happen.

Being the ripe old age of 21, most of these high frequencies are still within my hearing range. I busted a kid when his 36 year old form group teacher couldn't catch him. On a similar note, I busted a kid for playing games and could actually name the game correctly. This place between two worlds is a handy place indeed.

It's interesting to try and find out what frequency you can hear.

IMPORTANT: DON'T PUT YOUR EAR CLOSE TO THE SPEAKER OR TURN THE VOLUME UP REALLY LOUD. EVEN IF YOU CAN'T HEAR IT, A SOUND IS STILL PLAYING, AND IT CAN CAUSE DAMAGE TO YOUR EARS JUST LIKE ANY OTHER SOUND PLAYED LOUD AND CLOSE!
(I didn't know that before :$)

6 comments:

Trav said...

The golden question which remains is what does a teacher do once they leave "Teenage-land" because we all eventually leave it and become more interested in things of "Adult-land"

Steff said...

Really? I played dead fish with my 'kids' today... ;-)

Trav said...

hmm some are slower then others.

There are some old teachers who manage to connect very well with their younger classes even if they can't use a wii.

generally coz they have respect for their class, show interest and see themselves as learners of teenage-land.

Susan Barnes said...

The only two I can't hear is the 22.4khz and the 12khz. Not being able to hear the 22.4khz is understandable but the 12khz? This is rather odd since I can hear the higher ones. Would someone please listen to the 12khz and let me know if it is working.

Steff said...

Wow, I'm impressed! I can't hear the two bottom one, even though I've taken good care of my ears. Some people must just naturally have better hearing, perhaps?

The 12khz is working, I've listened to it. A way to check if the sound is working is to download the sound and play in in a music program that makes a visualisation when the track is playing (eg. windows media player).

Susan Barnes said...

Well that's really weird. I can see the visualization but just hear a couple little clicks. But I can definitely hear the higher ones.