One of the annoyances that most plagues me in life is the telephone. That's because it has a way of ringing when I don't want it to ring. Not that I dislike the people who are calling me; it's just that when I am doing something which requires a lot of concentration, the phone has a way of interrupting my concentration.

The end result is like Pavlovian conditioning, except unlike Pavlov's dogs, I don't associate the ring with a reward. No treat for me! Instead, more often than not I lose focus on whatever had depended upon my concentration. This gets worse over time, and I believe it has a cumulative effect on my sanity. Worse yet, the better computers become at "multitasking," the more inferior I feel because of my inability to do the same thing, and the more the ringing of the phone reminds me of this mental failure.

It's as if the phone is -- by the act of ringing -- mocking my predicament.

That is why I love the developments of newer and crazier ring tones by a younger generation that sees the phone on their terms. A few days ago, it was the Mosquito ringtone (developed out of a sound intended to repel only young people but be inaudible to adults):

A high-pitched alarm which cannot be heard by adults has been hijacked by schoolchildren to create ringtones so they can get away with using phones in class.

Techno-savvy pupils have adapted the Mosquito alarm, used to drive teenage gangs away from shopping centres.

The alarm, which has been praised by police, is highly effective because its ultra-high sound can be heard only by youths but not by most people over 20.

Schoolchildren have recorded the sound, which they named Teen Buzz, and spread it from phone to phone via text messages and Bluetooth technology.

Now they can receive calls and texts during lessons without teachers having the faintest idea what is going on.

While there's plenty of irony in the use of a tone meant to annoy teenagers into a tool to annoy their teachers, I think there's more to it than that, and it involves asserting control over something which threatens to control you.

Yesterday (via Drudge) I read about another tone, this one derived from an Israeli rocket alert siren:

Yehuda Peretz, a Reuters photographer in the south, is the person behind the ringtone. He recorded the sound of the siren and managed to turn it into a ringtone on his mobile phone.

"I didn't think it would become this popular. Now mainly teenagers are asking me for the ringtone and I decided to give them the opportunity to download it. Many have already downloaded it to their mobile phones," he said.

Peretz said some parents are not happy with the new ringtone, as at times the sounds cause panic among residents. He said the use of the ringtone is increasing from day to day.

"The more Qassams fired, the more teenagers use it. Maybe it's the opportunity to escape from the troublesome reality here," said Peretz.

There's a bit of a generation gap here, as older people believe that if the phone rings, you must answer it. But is there any such duty? That depends on how the consequences of answering or not answering are weighed.

There's something comically honest about an offensive ringtone.

But what would Pavlov say?

I don't know, and I'm not sure I want to know. Because that would force me to decide whether I care, and the problem is there's already too much to know, too much to care about.

I'm often tempted to turn off my phone, but I understand the temptation to care less.