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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: 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.
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(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.