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Ringtones Offend People - Police Cracking Down
It seems the people in Australia are fed up with annoying ringtones and have created what they call "The Citizens Infringement Officer" to reduce the increasing number of bothersome intrusions into their personal space by other peoples' gaudy ringtones.
This isn't true of course, except in a video clip from the controversial show "The Chaser," an outrageously funny hit series on Australian television. This hilarious clip is so appropriate to offensive ringtones that I had to feature it in one of my columns at Family Health and Living online magazine. As much as I hate the growing intrusion of government into our private lives, this is one area where I might want to make an exception.
Have you ever been in a crowded grocery store and suddenly heard the most horrendous sound you've ever heard only to have the person next to you put an end to the awful screeching by answering their cell phone?
It happened to me the other day and I was almost overwhelmed by a sudden urge to grab the can of peas from my cart and hurl it across the aisle at the offending teenager who was oblivious to the people around her covering their ears and scowling in her direction.
The root of this problem seems to be free ringtones or people who can't or won't change their ringtones very often for one reason or another. Let's face it, people love free stuff and it's not easy to get more than a few decent ringtones for free. Also, with paid services, it can be expensive changing your ringtone all the time.
The best solution of course, is to find a provider giving away thousands of free ringtones that are quick and easy to download. Since this is highly unlikely the next best solution is to find an inexpensive provider with a vast number of ringtones, with no limit on the number of ringtones you can download each month, and the procedure must be quick and simple.
If you have to build it yourself it's not quick and if you have to click all over the place to find more than one or two it's not simple. These are the main reasons that people end up with gaudy ringtones and then are reluctant to change them.
It seems to me that most people don't mind paying a few cents for ringtones if you give them exactly what they want and as much of it as they want. Alas, this is not the case with the big providers you see all over the web. Apparently there are people out there that are willing to pay 2 or 3 dollars apiece for ringtones or $9.99 per month for just a half a dozen of them, but I don't think most people fall into this category.
We want 'em cheap, we want 'em fast and we want all we can eat... period! The good news is that there are a few places like that out there and you only have to look in order to find them.
So, the next time you have an urge to throw something at a total stranger because you're jarred by some horrible sound that suddenly starts emanating from their pocket, you might want to pause and consider two things...
1. You could try telling them about some of the websites where they can download all the good ringtones they want fast and easy for next to nothing, and...
2. Check with your city council to see if they might create a "Citizens Infringement Officer" like the one in the Australian video, to police the streets and cut down on annoying ringtones.
About the Author
About the author...
Robert Archer is a feature writer for Family Health & Living online magazine and webmaster of several family oriented internet sites including ringtones-etc.com. You can view the Australian video referenced in the article at www.familyhealthandliving.com/ringtones/
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