just to let you know

ring, ring, ring

Mobile phones with self-recorded ringtones annoy me. It's not the tune itself that bugs me - it's the fact that a snippet of music is used for such an ordinary thing as a signal of a telephone to tell it's holder that there is an incoming call or message. Why can't phones just ring ? They rang for decades. Now they talk, bark and soon they probably smell, too. Oh it's just too much.

A colleague's mobile phone "jukeboxed" in the office yesterday - delighting all of us with a fraction of Coldplay's "Clocks". Obviously he likes the song so much he wanted it on his mobile. In the spirit of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" I am now trying to work out what the constant repetition of a song snippet does to the song itself. Does it get better or worse ? Well, I'll probably can't enjoy the song again, that's for sure - as it will now always remind me of a mobile going off.

We all seem to have become a society of "scanners and snippeteers". Taking in a full work (even just a 4 to 5 minute song) has become too tedious and long for most people. Everything has to be summarised, cut, edited, pasted and zipped. And I've had enough of it.

Last but not least I'll introduce you to the most abyssmal form of self-recorded ring tone: a voice saying "Ring ! Ring ! Ring !" - no comment.

Posted by Michael at April 22, 2004 01:00 PM