Hearing Aids Are Changing. Their Users Are, Too.
As more young people risk hearing loss, over-the-counter hearing aids are providing new options, but also confusing choices.
Ayla Wing's middle school students don't always know what to make of their 26-year-old teacher's hearing aids. The most common response she hears: "Oh, my grandma has them, too."
But grandma's hearing aids were never like this: Bluetooth-enabled and connected to her phone, they allow Ms. Wing to toggle with one touch between custom settings. She can shut out the world during a screeching subway ride, hear her friends in noisy bars during a night out and even understand her students better by switching to "mumbly kids."
A raft of new hearing aids have hit the market in recent years, offering greater appeal to a generation of young adults that some experts say is both developing hearing problems earlier in life and — perhaps paradoxically — becoming more comfortable with an expensive piece of technology pumping sound into their ears.
Some of the new models, including Ms. Wing's, are made by traditional prescription brands, which usually require a visit to a specialist. But the Food and Drug Administration opened up the market last year when it allowed the sale of hearing aids over the counter. In response, brand names like Sony and Jabra began releasing their own products, adding to the new wave of designs and features that appeal to young consumers.
"These new hearing aids are sexy," said Pete Bilzerian, a 25-year-old in Richmond, Va., who has worn the devices since he was 7. He describes his early models as distinctly unsexy: "big, funky, tan-colored hearing aids with the molding that goes all around the ear." But increasingly, those have given way to sleeker, smaller models with more technological capabilities.
Nowadays, he said, no one seems to notice the electronics in his ear. "If it ever does come up as a topic, I just brush it off and say, 'Hey, I got these very expensive AirPods.'"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Wednesday May 10, @08:52PM (3 children)
> Hey, I got these very expensive AirPods.
Is this also the explanation to as to why young people would need hearing aids? To much AirPods and headphones on all the time as they play around with their phones? The upside I guess is that they don't need to get used to them, just plop them in and it's just like before.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 11, @03:03AM
Yeah. I remember some kids with worse hearing than me and I was like 2-3 decades older than them. They used earphones to listen to music a lot and high volumes too (loud enough for me to hear it while I'm not that near to them).
How we found out was they had to set the volume much higher to hear stuff when we were using some audio gear. I'm like whoa you bunch are going deaf already and some of you are not even 20.
The other cause could be nightclubs (and later cinemas - they make the effects hearing damage loud but the conversations mumbly[1]) - the sound volume in those places are too high. At around that time I was already using some flattish response earplugs to protect my ears in such environments - they cut about 20dB. Also recommended such stuff to some kid musicians (and their parents) especially those who were playing the drums, but to no avail.
[1] https://www.slashfilm.com/673162/heres-why-movie-dialogue-has-gotten-more-difficult-to-understand-and-three-ways-to-fix-it/ [slashfilm.com]
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday May 11, @03:51AM
My hearing is great, but my audio language decoding is limited. I can't understand people who mumble, or who talk over other people or loud background noise. Maybe I should try some of these.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Informative) by UncleBen on Thursday May 11, @01:36PM
No.
You can benefit from hearing aids for a LOT of reasons not related to noise exposure. You can benefit from hearing aids for high-noise exposure not related to ear-bud/headphone (mis)use.
Making hearing aids more available is a huge improvement. But do get a pro's advice, do not self-medicate here. Costco is CHEAP, they'll test and offer at least some advice for free. And check your (USian) health care, they might do the test/reading for free or bare minimum cost.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by sjames on Wednesday May 10, @09:27PM (13 children)
It's probably the cars with ludicrously loud stereos in them. I'm not talking about the loud stuff we listened to in our youth, I'm talking about a car pulls up behind you and with your and their windows up and doors closed, their bass shakes YOUR rearview mirror. I'm thinking deaf as a post in 10 years.
The crazy part is this isn't limited to 16 and 17 year olds who haven't fully learned how to get along in society and the finer points of self preservation, this is younger adults with small children (who will be deaf by middle school) of their own.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 10, @11:09PM (8 children)
>younger adults with small children
Who could never afford a boom boom stereo before this, so now they can.
I think I lost a good bit of hearing in my right ear to the 4" front speaker hooked up to the 20W in-dash receiver amp. The 6x9s in the back on the 200W amplifier played loud and clean, but that front speaker would distort quite a bit trying to keep up with highway levels of noise. It was rated 20W clean, but probably put out a lot more power in nasty distortion.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday May 10, @11:30PM (5 children)
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 11, @12:47AM (4 children)
It's often overlooked: 1000W clean and distortion free is less damaging to hearing than a nasty distorting system. The only thing limiting some of those cheap systems is the 16 gauge power lines.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 4, Informative) by sjames on Thursday May 11, @01:31AM
I assure you, the ones I have heard were anything but clean and distortion free. Many have all the fidelity of an amplified air compressor.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 11, @02:45AM (2 children)
Yup...it's the harmonics when they saturate and abruptly clip, making lots of harmonics at high power.
I have hearing loss myself, and tinnitus, and I am quite sure my reluctance to abandon a church whose leadership had been taken over by one who believed louder meant better. He got rid of our older linear amplifiers and replaced them with kilowatt class D power amps, and even got special microphones which went right into a worship leader's mouth trying to avoid feedback at such high power levels. Even placed liens on the church property to pay for all that expensive new stuff, when what we had was working fine, even though it was only 100 watt RMS total on all three amplifiers. I oughta know, I was the sound guy who kept the whole thing working. All 60's technology, did exactly what it was designed to do, and made when things were designed to be repaired should they break.
But I wasn't designed for several kilowatts of sound in a confined concrete building. The fanciest headsets out there didn't help. No match for a leader who constantly signaled me to boost the power. If it wasn't squealing, it wasn't loud enough. Between him and me, we ran all the older people out of the church.
I don't know how to communicate with those trained in the art of leadership. You know, obey or vamoose. All I could do is watch them blow up a church with a 100 year + history.
I became a "none". I vamoosed. Anyone ask my religious affiliation now, I just reply " none".
I still have my belief system intact, but needlessly exposing myself to kilowatt amplifiers isn't in it. I joined that church to study the holy books, not to be "entertained" . They could no longer meet that need. Likewise, I could no longer tolerate the assaults on my ears.
Moot point now. The church no longer exists. It's now an eatery.
But it wasn't the sound that did us in, it was the loss of the old pastor who knew the holy books extremely well. Any question or situation arise and he was extremely agile to locate the exact passage to advise us of the ancient wisdom of how to deal with it. I really miss that old man.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 11, @07:11AM (1 child)
The problem with some churches is they end up serving the loan more than serving the Lord... 😂
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 11, @11:33PM
Seems like that's what today's churches are...fund raisers, to support extravagant lifestyles of those who don't mind blasting out that they are owed my resources as gratuity for blessings. Much the same psychology as those square ipad tipping screens showing up at restaurants.
Pass the plate in front of everybody. Make a public show of it. Public shaming.
My response is the same. The Church did it. I don't go there anymore. I am not going to tolerate either being shamed or be used to shame others.
Just as my response to the tip pad was to give the middle tip and avoid that place in the future.
The first thought that came to my mind was how much did the business spend for that ipad thingie, when I scrimp to get the bargain Walmart android pad? All my tips do is pay off the business that made these damned things. I tip in cash. The whole idea was to keep tips private, not out where everyone else sees it, the privileged ones getting their cut off the top.
People shouldn't be put in the position of either being shamed or being used to shame others.
These people claim to represent deity, but in reality are only predatory businesses.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Thursday May 11, @01:50AM (1 child)
It's not a boom boom stereo, it's a doof doof stereo [youtube.com] (thankyou Australia for that one).
Or for a more general comment on it, also from Australia, there's Axis of Awesome [youtube.com]:
CAN YOU HEAR THE -ING MUSIC COMING OUT OF MY CAR?
CAN YOU HEAR THE -ING MUSIC COMING OUT OF MY CAR?
CAN YOU HEAR THE -ING MUSIC COMING OUT OF MY CAR?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 11, @12:35PM
https://youtu.be/DIIejZVRKgw [youtu.be] (don't watch if you're epileptic).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by acid andy on Thursday May 11, @01:26PM (1 child)
I don't know if it's my neurology or if I lack the relevant genes but I have never, ever, understood the appeal of painfully loud music, even as a child or teenager. I get that loud music can make a bigger impression and maybe inspire some sense of awe, that there's more energy, and I do enjoy a strong bassline. I just never got why so many people seem to think that if loud is cool, then louder is always cooler, no matter how far you extrapolate that graph. Once it starts to feel physically painful, I'm not getting anything extra out of the listening experience.
As Joe said, many of these sound systems just start to sound horribly distorted when played that loud but more than that, I'm convinced that the acoustics of the human ear itself start to go to shit when it's well into the painful or harmful volume levels.
I just do not get it and I need someone to explain it to me. Why do people like it so much?
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sjames on Thursday May 11, @03:46PM
I really couldn't tell you. As a teen, I certainly liked music louder than adults around did, but there were limits. I did not like it distorted. Even at the most extreme, you couldn't hear a car going by outside when you were inside if the windows were closed. By my 20's I found music that made it hard to talk normally to someone annoying except in a concert setting.
But the very loudest my friends and I ever listened to music isn't even on the same scale as the boom cars. I actually sat in one of those once. Every surface in the car felt like it was coated in oil and vision was blurry due to vibration of the eyeballs. Even breathing felt a little off. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I think I was about 25 at that time. I'm not convinced that it's safe to operate a motor vehicle under those conditions.
There's going to be a lot of middle aged people with severe hearing impairment.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Thursday May 11, @06:53PM (1 child)
I recall reading that most people have lost more hearing in their left ears, except in countries where the cars drive on the left side of the road. That's right, even the buffeting from an open car window causes some hearing loss.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 12, @10:15AM
See also: https://www.audiologyonline.com/ask-the-experts/asymmetric-hearing-loss-from-shooter-347 [audiologyonline.com]
https://www.silencercentral.com/blog/shooters-ear-what-it-is-and-how-to-prevent-it/ [silencercentral.com]