Many students who recently graduated high school would have heard the "Teen Buzz" ringtone sometime throughout high school. As cell phones have become more popular, adults have tried to get their kids off of phones and schools have banned them from class. This obviously hasn't stopped us "kids" from using our phones during school; we have just found a sneakier way to use them! The Teen Buzz is a high frequency tone that many people have been using as a text message alert because older adults cannot hear it. As we age we lose the tiny hair cells in our ears which cause us to lose some of our hearing abilities, including hearing high frequency noises.
The "Teen Buzz" being used as a ringtone is a creative idea but for those that can hear it... OUCH. If you hear that high frequency noise for loud enough it can really start to get under your skin. Some kids from my high school even claimed to have gotten headaches after hearing the noise for more than a minute or two. I have noticed this phenomenon in my house on unintentional occasions such as when the television is on. Normally, I can tell from the other room that the T.V. is on even if it is on mute because it produces a high frequency noise that my parents never notice but it drives me crazy. Whoever created "Teen Buzz" sure was sneaky but can also successfully annoy many people!