I find cell phones annoying, but the different rings have never bothered me. Then again, none of my co-workers use them:
According to a survey by Randstad USA, a staffing and work-force management company, 30 percent of employees say the ringing of their co-workers' cell phones is their greatest annoyance of the workday. . . .
Considering all the sounds we encounter in a typical day -- clacking keyboards, conversations, traditional telephones -- what is it about a ringing cell phone that jars us so? Diana Deutsch and Trevor Henthorn, researchers in the psychology department at University of California, San Diego, wonder if the so-called "earworm effect" is the culprit. Unlike the typical "brrring!" of the conventional phone, the song snippets of many ring tones insidiously wend their way into our heads. That's good for the phones' owners, who immediately can identify it as their personal ring. That's bad for everyone within earshot, now left with "Ice Ice Baby" playing on a continuous loop in their heads.
Link.
The story doesn't address the larger question: Why the need to have the phones on all the time to begin with? That's the most baffling part. Why this need to be touchable, 24/7 (well, at least 16/7), especially when cellphone voicemail is so nifty, fast, and cheap? Let the caller leave a message on your voicemail, then pick it up when you're done with the funeral or sexual encounter. Unfortunately, too many people want to be accessible immediately and all the time, no matter how rude the interruption is to others around them.
