FROM the days of monophonic ringtones that blared out from cellphones resembling bricks, to the high tech MP3 ringtones, one fact remains constant.
There will always be annoying ringtones. And they always seem to ring on days when you’re feeling most irritable.
FROM the days of monophonic ringtones that blared out from cellphones resembling bricks, to the high tech MP3 ringtones, one fact remains constant.
There will always be annoying ringtones. And they always seem to ring on days when you’re feeling most irritable.
When I was younger I recall sneaking off with my mom’s Nokia 3210 and secretly changing her ringtone to a high pitched sound that grew fainter as the tone progressed (the ringtone was aptly named “Rocket”).
I loved the look on her face when she wondered what that sound was, none the wiser that she was being summoned by her very own cellphone. And what was I thinking in my juvenile mind?
To irritate my mom, essentially. At fi rst my dear mom didn’t mind so much, but as the days wore on, the tone irritated her (and I’m sure countless others around her) and she eventually changed it to something a little safer.
That was a young person’s point of view. But why do fully-formed adults like messing around with annoying ringtones. How does one gauge the intensity of annoyance?
The infamous Crazy Frog is defi nitely at the extreme end (although I must admit, the fi rst time round, and only the fi rst time, it was kind of cute).
Asking around, I discovered that most people who know that they have annoying ringtones will say that they chose it because it’s irritating and they have no intention of changing it anytime soon.
What? If something gets on your nerves,make it immediately disappear from your life and your thoughts. Some just have ringtones that are groovy and loud enough to promptly alert them to a phone call. Fair enough, I get that.
A quick internet surf reveals entire websites dedicated to listing annoying/funny/crazy ringtones. Of course they’re subjective, but here are a few that tickled my funny (and annoying) bone: a laughing cow, Godzilla roar, a gunshot (also potentially dangerous), Star Trek soundtrack, old-school telephone ring, and last but not least, that sound we all like to hear in the middle of a hot night a buzzing mosquito.
Whether Mono- or polyphonic, annoying is annoying. One of the websites states that James Blunt’s You’re beautiful song holds the top spot of the most downloaded ringtones of all time. Yes, of all time.
Blunt also holds the number 20 spot with the smash hit Goodbye my lover. Other annoying songs which made the list were Don’t Cha by the lovely Pussycat Dolls, and one that I’ve heard very often in the wailing of Rihanna with Unfaithful. All highly annoying when heard over. And. Over. Again.
I must admit that my message ringtone could be bordering on the irritating. It’s a screwed up voice belting out the national anthem, forgetting some of the words along the way.
Very patriotic. Kind of reminds me of Ras Dumisani ‘singing’ at the rugby game in France not so long ago. Enough said.
Certain companies have sprung up to cater for the annoying ringtone gap in the market. The payoff line for one of these companies is: “We like to play.” So clearly, these companies are feeding off our great obsession to be alerted by some insane person shrieking “Pick up your phone Madam!
Pick up the phone! It’s ringing”. How unceremonious. But how oh-so funny. The fi rst time around, being the recurring underlying theme.
Fast forward to the umpteenth time you’ve heard it and you’re ready to grab the cell phone in question, and catapult it as far as possible.
See who it irritates then! There’s no simple solution really, to this annoying ringtone pandemic. Because let’s face it, it has reached epic proportions.
You cannot do your shopping, you cannot sit and read a book, you cannot stand in a queue without an odd ringtone going off somewhere in your midst.
I suppose the best that we can hope for is that the owner answers the call as swiftly as possible, before the once quiet listeners of these ringtones rebel and chuck the cellphone (probably along with the owner) out of the nearest window.
