All’s fair in the generation war

Keep those pesky kids away!

A few months ago a British company began marketing a teenager repellent to homeowners and shopkeepers who don’t want young people congregating nearby or patronizing their stores. The machine is simple. It emits a high-pitched squeal that only young people can hear, since the human hearing range narrows as we get older. The sound is so annoying to most teens that upon hearing it they disperse.

Pretty dickheaded thing to do if you ask me, especially considering the fact that teenagers need places to congregate in public, lest they sit in the basement all day with nothing to do but get high. So that in mind, I don’t have any problem with kids who turn the thing around on adults. It seems teens have figured out how to use the screech as their cell phone ringtone, letting them text-message away in class without teacher being the wiser.

There’s a message in all of this, you know. I think it goes something like this: DON’T TREAT YOUR KIDS LIKE INSECTS, ASSHATS!

Anyway, if readers are curious about the sound I’ve linked to an mp3 below. If I turn the volume up I can hear it, but not well enough that it’s annoying or in any way painful.

Listen to the ringtone

Tags: society technology