Up Next: Pavlovian Phantom Rings To Make You Pay Attention
from the wait...-is-that-my-phone? dept
In the last few years, I've noticed that there are certain noises that make me think my mobile phone is ringing (even though my phone is perpetually in vibrate mode, so as not to bother anyone). A few songs always make me reach for my phone and for some reason, a noise played by Fox Sports at the beginning of every inning of baseball games they broadcast always makes me wonder if my phone is ringing. It can actually get annoying. Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks so. The concept of the "phantom ring," where certain noises make people think their phone is ringing, is suddenly getting a lot of attention. It seems that people are so trained to jump whenever their phone rings, that many of us have been mentally trained to pay extra attention to the possibility that our phones are ringing. Where this gets extra interesting is the suggestion that advertisers might use this to their advantage, and incorporate certain "phantom ring" noises into advertisements -- causing people to pay extra attention. The advertisers in the article deny it -- but others insist that the rise of such noises on TV is anything but an accident. Chances are, now that the NY Times has run this article, that a lot more advertisers will start doing this on purpose, though. Of course, maybe that will get more of us to move to Motorola's "shock me" phone, so that we no longer have to listen for rings.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Waht about the phantom vibrate?
Why is it I can never find anyone complaining about phantom phone virations? Even when my phone is on the desk, in its charger, I can still feel it vibrating at times. Freaks me out.
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Re: Waht about the phantom vibrate?
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Re: Waht about the phantom vibrate?
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It's nothing new...
If your phone is always in vibrate mode, how would you ever make a mental association between some music or noise and your phone? I'd more likely expect that every time you experience random vibration that you'd think your phone is ringing.
that advertisers might use this to their advantage, and incorporate certain "phantom ring" noises into advertisements
This doesn't make sense to me. Given that there are thousands of available ringtones, how many people would respond to any given one? If we're talking about standard rings, not song clips (is there anyone still using standard rings??), they aren't really very different from home phone rings (real bell ringing went away a long time ago). It seems to me that advertisers have been including phone rings to get your attention for years.
Radio advertisers laso do this occasionaly when they include a car horn or siren noise in their ads.
A more disturbing attention-getting technique that they use is to increase the volume significantly higher than the programming around them.
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me too
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old news...
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Re: old news...
Of course, 95% of the time, when an ad comes on the radio (and I only listen to talk radio or classical since Clear Channel seems to think the entire world should only ever hear about 100 songs.), I just plug in my 80GB Nueros.
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vibrations
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Age Based?
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Zombies we are
As the title of the article indicates, we're all just animals and can be trained to do anything. Why do you think companies spend millions of dollars advertising because it works. We're really not that much different than our friends the canine.
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Re: Zombies we are
Really? Most people I know, including myself, screen all or most phone calls. I think too many people are hung up on the thought that people are "Too Available". Get over it and learn the word "no".
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Re: Zombies we are
I don't hear phantom rings as much as phantom vibrations... maybe because I pay attention to my phone more when it's on vibrate though.
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Re: Re: Zombies we are
This is a good point. Perhaps people are too sensitive, or I am just not sensitive enough to care... either way I'm guess I'm off topic.
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Phantom Vibrations
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Phantom Rings
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Used be illegal...
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Wow
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phantom phone
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The funny thing is that my dog has lived in our house his entire life and definitely knows the sound of our doorbell... but when a commercial comes on and a doorbell sounds that is distinctively different from ours, he still goes crazy and thinks someone is at the door. Sadly, my first thought is the same even though I know its not our doorbell.
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Coming of age in the Age of Technology
I seriously doubt that radio or tV has been including such noise on purpose, but sound can creep in to any willing circuit so you never know...
"The maestro says it's Mozart, but it sounds like bubblegum."
--Leonard Cohen
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I despise those with the red-hot passion of a thousand suns.
Doritos used to have a radio spot with that. I tried to register my umbrage with them at their website, but it was (at that time) some flash-infested piece of trendy k00l-ness and I couldn't find any place to tell them how I felt.
I've called up radio stations to tell them that what they were playing was so despised I changed the station, but they didn't seem to care much.
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TV off. sounds not.
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ringing
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