Ringxiety

Ringxiety is a portmanteau neologism formed from the words "ringtone" and "anxiety." It was first coined by David Laramie, a doctoral student at the California School of Professional Psychology, whose dissertation concerned the effects of cell phones on behavior. Ringxiety is described as the sensation and the false belief that one can hear his or her mobile phone ringing or feel it vibrating, when in fact the telephone is not doing so. Other terms for this concept include "phantom ring effect" and "fauxcellarm". It can also be generalized to describe the sensation of hearing one's phone or doorbell ring while doing such things as taking a shower, watching television, or using a noisy device. The reasoning for this relates partially to the idea that humans are particularly sensitive to auditory tones between 1,000 and 6,000 hertz, and basic mobile phone ringers often fall within this range. This frequency range can generally be more difficult to locate spatially, thus allowing for potential confusion when heard from a distance. False vibrations are less well understood, however, and could have psychological or neurological sources.

The phantom ring is a pop culture term used to define the act of hearing a sound similar to one's cell phone's ringtone and mistakenly believing its one's cell phone ringing. It may occur while a person is listening to the radio or watching television. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/fashion/thursdaystyles/04phan.html?ex=1304395200&en=98d2a4d5b5a61cd4&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss I Hear Ringing and There's No One There. I Wonder Why.] -New York Times, press release, May 4, 2006]

Devices

In addition to phantom ringing, other attention grabbing devices such as sirens, horns or crying babies in a commercial message have been generically labeled as "phantom ringing".

ounds from nature

Some doorbells or telephone ring sounds are modeled afterpleasant sounds from nature. This backfires however when such devicesare used in rural areas containing the original sounds -- the owner isfaced with the constant task of determining if it is the device or theactual bird. [ [http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/21.49.html#subj12 The Risks Digest Volume 21: Issue 49 ] ]

ee also

*Tinnitus

References

*cite news |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/fashion/thursdaystyles/04phan.html?ei=5090&en=98d2a4d5b5a61cd4&ex=1304395200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all |title=I Hear Ringing and There's No One There. I Wonder Why. |first=Brenda |last=Goodman |date=2006-05-04 |publisher=The New York Times

Further reading

*cite news |url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-06-12-cellphones_N.htm |title=Good vibrations? Bad? None at all? |first=Angela |last=Haupt |publisher=USA TODAY |date=2007-06-12
*cite news |title=Sir, I'm afraid it's 'ringxiety' |author=The Daily Telegraph |publisher=news.com.au |date=2006-05-29
*cite news |url=http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2005-05-03/orso-phantomvibes |title=Who's calling? Is it your leg or your cell phone? |first=Joe |last=Orso |publisher=Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism |date=2005-05-03