Yahoo Finance TikTok claims people over 25 cannot hear this piercing sound: ‘Did you hear it or not?’
A viral TikTok featuring nothing but a very high-pitched noise has users questioning the quality of their hearing.
The original clip, shared by user @metzie72, shows a pair of speakers and a simple line of text reading, “Only people under the age of 25 can hear this sound.”
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The video then plays what is said to be a 17,500-Hertz sound — have a listen to it below.
The TikTok elicited mixed reactions from viewers, with many over 25 claiming they could hear the sound, and some well below the magic cut-off age unable to hear a thing.
“But I’m over 25 and can hear it,” one user wrote.
“im 15 and cant hear it.. is this a joke or…??” said another.
“In my 30s and I can hear it. This is bs….” commented a third, with yet another writing, “I’m 21 and couldn’t hear anything.”
Right off the bat, this writer can confirm that 25 is not some sort of fool-proof rule for who can and cannot hear the noise. As a woman in her late 20s, the sound is sharp as day for me. My mom, however, who is [age redacted, but confirmed over 50], cannot hear a thing.
Still, it seems that there is definitely a correlation between one’s age and the power of the 17,500-Hertz sound.
A click on the original TikTok sound reveals a wealth of videos showing parents and their children reacting differently to the noise. In most clips, the younger family member recoils at the high-pitched bleep, while the older relative appears unfazed.
According to Decibel Hearing Services, a clinic located in Thousand Oaks, Calif., one of the most common types of hearing loss, called presbycusis, is known to make hearing high-frequency sounds difficult.
High-frequency hearing loss is most frequently caused by aging, but can also be triggered by exposure to loud noises, genetics and ototoxicity disease.
It would make sense that the older you get, the less likely you are to hear as high of a pitch as 17,500 Hertz. In fact, the clinic claims that even 15,000 Hertz is difficult for anyone over the age of 40 to hear.
So, could you hear the noise?
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