Only People Under 18 Can Hear This "Mosquito Tone"? Test Your Hearing Age (Test Included)

In 2005, a security company in Wales invented a device called "The Mosquito." It emits a high-frequency piercing noise at 17,400 Hertz (Hz). The purpose? To disperse teenagers loitering in front of shopping centers.

Something amazing happened: Only teenagers would cover their ears and run away because they couldn't stand the noise, while passing adults were completely indifferent, as if nothing had happened.

This isn't because adults have stronger endurance, but because—their ears are already too "old" to hear this frequency.

Your Ear is a Precision Instrument with Irreversible Wear

The theoretical human hearing range is 20Hz to 20,000Hz. But in reality, this is a one-way street that only goes down.

This relates to a physiological structure we need to introduce—the Cochlea. The inside of the cochlea is lined with thousands of tiny Hair Cells, responsible for capturing sound waves and converting them into neural signals.

• Hair cells at the entrance: Responsible for receiving high-frequency sounds.
• Hair cells deep inside: Responsible for receiving low-frequency sounds.

Imagine the entrance to the cochlea like a doormat. No matter what frequency of sound enters the ear, it must step on this "doormat" first. Therefore, the hair cells responsible for high frequencies not only do the most work but are also the most vulnerable to the impact and wear of noise.

Once these hair cells die, they never regenerate. This is why "hearing loss" always starts from the high-frequency range.

Since It's Irreversible, Let's Test the Damage First

What is your current hearing upper limit? Are you still a "Golden Ear" at 19kHz, or have you dropped to a "Middle-aged Ear" at 12kHz?

We have developed an online frequency generator. It will sweep from frequencies sensitive to the human ear all the way up to the edge of ultrasound that only babies and dogs can hear.

Note: Even if your ears are good, if your speakers or headphones aren't capable, they might not produce ultra-high frequency sounds. It is recommended to wear decent headphones for the test.

🔗 Start Hearing Age Test

Watch the volume! When the sound becomes so high-pitched it disappears, hit pause. Is your hearing age 20 or 60?

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Why Do Many Young People Have "Old Ears"?

Medically, hearing loss that occurs naturally with aging is called "Presbycusis." But in modern times, more and more people in their 20s are testing with a hearing age of 40+.

The culprits are usually the following two points:

1. Headphone Volume Too High (Noise-Induced Hearing Loss)

If you wear headphones on the subway or bus, to drown out 80 decibels of ambient noise, you might turn the music up to 90 decibels or even higher. This is simply "sonic bombardment" for hair cells.

Geek Ear Protection Tips:

• 60/60 Rule: Volume no more than 60%, listening for no more than 60 minutes at a time.
• Buy Noise-Canceling Headphones: Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) isn't just for sound quality; it's for health. It allows you to hear details clearly at lower volumes, directly reducing sound pressure damage.

2. Don't Use Cotton Swabs to Clean Your Ears!

This sounds counterintuitive, but as geeks, we trust medical evidence. Earwax (cerumen) has antibacterial and protective functions and is self-cleaning. Using cotton swabs often pushes wax deeper into the ear canal or can even damage the eardrum. If you feel blocked, please go to an ENT specialist for professional cleaning.

Conclusion

Hearing loss is progressive and hidden. Just like myopia, you might just feel that "everyone is mumbling lately," without realizing that you can't hear consonants (usually high-frequency sounds like s, f, th) anymore.

Turn down the volume a bit while you can still hear. After all, our brains haven't evolved the function to "replace the cochlea" yet.

Even if it's just to hear the cicadas and birds in the future, it's worth testing now.

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Produced by the iknowabit team. Data references: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and related acoustic research.