Ring tones are a cool way to make a 15-second statement about your individuality and personal taste

I always enjoy my morning ride in the taxi. The silence allows me to put my thought together for the day ahead. Some of my best ideas have come from this moment of the day but today was different.

I was just seated enjoying my ride when this obnoxious ring tone tore up the silence piercing my ear drums and jolting me out of my reverie.

It was a 50 Cent’s "In Da Club,” ring tone and it was an old man’s phone ringing.

He picked his phone up and there was silence again but this time it got me thinking why do people choose such weird ring tones? Are ring tones personal statements we make?

To me, this man seemed like one of the few people who simply consider age like any other number and I wondered what personality he was promoting with such a ring tone.

I think everyone should carefully consider their ring tones because they show who you are.

Today a ring tone does far more than alert one to that someone is calling. The lyrics and songs on your cell phone send a loud and clear signal to everyone around about who you are or who you would like people to think you are.

Several years ago, ring tones were just to alert. As an alert, ring tones didn’t have many variations of sound. Nowadays people download ringing tones quite easily.

There are many different types of ring tones to choose from and each is a personal statement therefore one should be careful while making a choice.

Some ring tones are simply a sound effect, or a monophonic melody. Others are polyphonic melodies. Some others are actual songs.

While some people just choose one of the standard ring tones that come with the phone, others pay to have a special song, jingle or sound effect to alert them of incoming calls.

In this age of Bluetooth some people just need to save new tones directly to their phone from computers. Whether you are funny, entertaining, stylish or cool you ring tone can send this message for you. Ring tones are a cool way to make a 15-second statement about your individuality and personal taste.

"I love Beyonce’s songs and I was really excited to have one of them as my ringtone,”says Peace Nambi. Friends love her ring tone and sometimes they just call her to listen to it. Alfred Kimani had cool country music ring tone.

"I thought tone was really cool but my friends thought that country music was for old timers. I had to update my ring tone to Sean Paul ragga which I also enjoy "says Kimani.

Suman Chhabria-Addepalli, a psychologist says, "I spend hours surfing the net for a tone that my phone would play out several times a day. I admit I want people to notice every time I change a caller tune or ring tone, because it says something about me.”

According to her, one should not be careful about the ring tone they use because it will show people how careless you are about the image you portray.

"You know that your clothes, your music and even your hairstyle can speak volumes about who you are the same goes for ring tones” says Suman.

Ring tones have the power to turn a room full of happy people into a grumbling lot. If you don’t believe me look around your office and you won’t miss a shrug when someone’s phone goes off with a sound of a frog.

But what does your ring tone say about you? Do you realise how annoying your ring tone could be? If you are wondering if you are cool or not, simply wait until someone calls you. Your ring tone won’t only tell you, but it will tell everyone around you where you stand on the subject.

Ends