I am old. Can you hear this?

Last Tuesday, while working at a client site in Baltimore, Maryland, my friend Dustin at C e r n e r sent me an email with an article from the New York Times, as well as an MP3 ringtone file. I played the file, but could not hear a thing. But Doug, a client personnel sitting in the next cube, stood up and wondered what the hell was going on. I was shocked! I could not hear anything, but he could! I am only 28, and Doug, to my best guesstimation, is in his mid 30's. After all, he has a daughter close to teenage years.

Now why is age of any relevance to the topic at hand? There is a supposed rate of presbycusis that on average, people over 25 start losing their ability to hear high pitched sounds above 17 kHz range. And it only gets worse over time. For comparison purposes, the highest note on a piano is 4 kHz!

Well, the MP3 profiled in the New York Times article is a popular ringtone among high school kids. Mostly because it is inaudible to most adults! So if you can hear the ringtone, kudos to you as you do not have an advanced stage of presbycusis, unlike my old, deaf self. =)