The Nokia Tune: Ironic, Kitsch, Retro, Nostalgic, Parodic, Irreverent, Camp, Wry or knowingly self-aware postmodern statement?

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you know the one i mean. THE nokia ring, the first one (buh-de-bud-duh, buh-de-buh-duh-duh). Why, now theres an exponential range of tunes you can have and you can compose your own blahdy blah, why do some people choose this ring?

― gareth, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Because choosing one's own ring tone says, "I am so bereft of spirit and distinguishing characteristics that a personalized ring-tone is the only way I can assert my existence"

― dave q, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can't quite work out from your transcription whether this is the text message tune. If it is, one doesn't have many options (it's either that or some variant on the single beep).

If you're not talking about this then I admire it anyway as a stand against some kind of wank-universe in which personlised ringtones are supposed to be an expression of your individuality.

― Nick, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, dave q. got there first. I seem to be agreeing with him a lot lately. Am I in a bad mood?

― Nick, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dave & Nick, you are both wrong as mobiles rock. On my Nokia there are over 30 different tones already on when you buy it and the main reason for choosing a 'personal' one is so when you are on the bus / train / wherever else you want to irritate the hell out of the 18th century throwbacks who don't have a mobile, when your phone rings you know it is yours. Mine is Cladoceran.

― Emma, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nick and Dave (!!!) are right: novelty mob rings are the new wacky ties.

― Mark Morris, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, it would be much better if everyone's phone went 'bring bring' and every time one rang 200 people in a confined space dived into their bags / pockets. I can see your reasoning.

― Emma, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I genuinely do think that would be a good thing.

Actually, I don't have a 'ring ring' on mine. I have a huge fuck-off siren, which allows me a) to hear it and b) not be a complete arse.

― NIck, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Whenever a phone is ringing on the bus I do see people surreptitiously checking theirs just in case electronic wizardry has taken over and mysteriously changed their ring tone into the tone that is ringing. When there is a text message beep everyone goes mental as these are all the same (mostly).

― Emma, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sometimes when the ring goes for a v.long time *i* start fishing around surreptitiously: i have never had a mob, but the panic is such that i begin to doubt this fact

― mark s, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Do you also have a habit of turning yourself in for long-term unsolved murder cases?

― Nick, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

long, short, unsolved, solved, murder, traffic: basically anyuthing where ppl are feeling a little awkward and uncertain for longer than it takes to say "this is awful"

― mark s, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Nokia Tune has words, you know:

"I'm annoying

I'm annoying

I'm annoying you."

― Tim, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nokias = dud. Big up the Siemens massive! We've got tunes composed by top DJs! DJs tone deff and bullshite no doubt, but at least it aint a Nokia. Nooooo-kia. Noh-kia. Blurrgrh.

― Sarah, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Im I the only person in the world that still enjoys the good old 'ring ring'?

― cat, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I always wanted phones to be able to record their own ring-sample. That way I could sneak into people's bags as they're sleeping on the train, change the sample, and they'd be awakened with "hey asshole! answer your fucking phone!"

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I keep my phone on silent usually. But, if it's not on silent I have Robonix. I have an an old school 3310, if it breaks I won't replace it. Nokia tones are good for sampling on the SK-1.

― jel, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I mostly keep my mobile on vibrate. Secondly I can't text message and actually refuse to call the service centre to ask them to activate it. "Text messaging is ruining pub quizes..."

― nathalie, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mine just got stolen - so it's the only time i've regretted 'meeting' as a preset.

― jason, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think mobiles are useless and self important. If someone is going to die or be in jail if you do not have yours then all means , otherwise you are NOT that important. I do not even have voice mail anymore.

― anthony, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What is self important about trying to meet up with your friends for a drink after work?

― Emma, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pay Phones . Cell phones seem to be a ymptom of the hermetcizing of our culture.

― anthony, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, but Anthony you are assuming people are indoors, phoning a mobile from a pay phone is very expensive. They are just another new technology, nothing terrifying, nothing special.

― jel, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anthony don't live in UK, correct? We've long past the tipping point on mobiles here: if people can't reach you by mob, they just get annoyed. Saturdays/night outs structured around the idea that you change plans constantly and pick up stragglers along the way. And absolutely vital if you are ever foolish enough to try and pinic on Hampstead Heath. Oh, a few brave/foolish souls try to resist, but frankly mobiles make my social life easier and my work life possible.

― Mark Morris, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Thank you Mark. Anthony's comment makes me imagine people having given their mates the number of their nearest one and using it as a personal phone in the style of Top Cat. 'Yeah, should be in the Red Lion, if not I'll call you on the payphone outside McDonalds'. Very efficient.

― Emma, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Is it just me who gets some kind of moronic low-intensity thrill out of the fact that in the US, cellphones still seem to be 'ooh hoo', whereas here everyone has had one for some time (except mark sinker and the pinefox, who ascribes their power to magick)

― Nick, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I still have curmudgeonly impulses re. mobiles but yeah v. useful. We need to have that Ringtone Focus Group. However Mark's comment implies the one very important point - it's becoming less and less acceptable to be 'unreachable' anywhere. My boss just went on holiday, taking his laptop, and so on. This is serious and not all good.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My office doesn't have my mobile number and if I want to me Little Miss Oh So Unreachable I will turn it off. Simple. Last Thursday's Team Groke pub outing proves scientifically that mobiles are essential for those tricky occasions when the pub you planned to meet in is closed for a power cut.

― Emma, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Me = be.

― Emma, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah admittedly last Thursday was a Turning Point in shifting me from "mobile will turn up eventually" mode to "dammit I need a new one" mode.

― Tom, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Cell phones seem to be a symptom of the hermeticizing of our culture": used to be true, sure, now = hilariously and even scarily the opposite. Before london-cartoon = no one speaks to each = hermeticised. Now everyone talks to everyone the whole time. Schoolkidz talking to each down the bus eg, instead of sitting quietly (well, actually they DON'T EVER sit quietly, but mobbed-up mobs of em — did you like my JOKE? — are INFINITELY pref to SHRIEKING mobs of em).

― mark s, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I dont know. Maybe i am snobbish and wrong.

― anthony, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't think cellphones are "ooh hoo" here anymore. Every 12 year old has one. They work much better in europe though.

― Kris, Thursday, 16 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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