In senior communities, you’re bound to bump into hearing-challenged people. Sometimes literally. They don't hear you coming. This morning I approached two golfers chatting on the cart path. They didn’t hear my warning call to them. I swerved around them hoping my sudden presence didn’t send them into cardiac arrest.
Another time hubby and I were walking on a path and upon approaching a man from the back said “Passing on your left.” He didn’t hear us.
The most common word in a senior community is “What?” I say it in crowded rooms or if the speaker has a quiet voice.
Other than visiting an audiologist, how do you know you need hearing aids? Can you tell by the number of times you say “what?” Can you discount having to say “what?” if the person mumbles? Or if you are in a room with a lot of background noise? How much noise?
According to my audiologist, I have slight hearing loss in my left ear. I asked her “Would hearing aids help me understand the TV dialog better?” Her answer – no. I’ve pinpointed the sounds I can’t hear: The alarm clock. washing machine buzzer (same tone as my tinnitus) and the high A played at the end of Meditation from Thaïs. Maybe missing the alarm clock and washing machine buzzer isn’t all that bad, although Hubby wouldn’t agree. And I can always enjoy the first 4:55 of Meditation even if I miss the last note. So if you have a voice in the key of high A, I’ll miss most of what you say.
If hearing aids won’t help me better hear the dialog on TV, who needs them? I’m not ashamed to say “what?” a few times in the conversation.
We use closed captioning on the TV. I worry that I rely on the captions instead of listening to the dialog. Using closed captioning shouldn’t make you feel old, over 80% of 18-24-year-olds use captioning while only 23% percent of us seniors do. (1)
There are times when even closed captioning doesn’t help. During the writer’s strike Jeopardy captions looked like a monkey was on the keyboard. According to one caption, Ken Jennings said, “ososare e e ananann,nn,n?) (2,3,4)
It’s not our fault we can’t understand the TV dialog. According to experts, the biggest reason for the rise of subtitles is that “Dialogue is getting harder to hear." Sound mixers for movies say they sometimes skimp on editing to save costs. Plus with digital technology producers can layer up to 200 tracks at once, so now you aren’t just hearing voices and some background music.
Why do we resist hearing aids? I blame the audiologist who said my hearing wasn’t, “that bad.” I’m waiting for her to say, “You really do need hearing aids.” I hope I’ll be able to hear her by then. Is it vanity? Nowadays, you usually can't see the looming specter of aging. Or maybe the dent they put in your 401K, they aren’t covered by insurance.
Some people say when they first try them things sound strange they push them aside. My friend’s audiologist warned her, “At first things will sound strange. Stick with it for at least a week.” She said, “When someone dropped their fork on the table it sounded like it sounded like steel pipes clanging to the ground. But I do hear people better, especially when there is a lot of background noise.”
Reddit gives funny stories of people having trouble with hearing aids: (5)
One person said, “I looked for mine for 90 minutes while wearing them. Couldn't figure out why the finder in the phone app kept saying they were ‘very close’."
Another said, “I got into the shower one evening. It took me a solid 5 minutes to work out why the sound of the water was louder than usual.” A Reddit user said she had that problem so many times she found a sticker on Etsy to put on her show door.
Finally, another said, “Eating cereal was an awakening of sorts when I first got hearing aids. It was the first time I’d noticed that my chewing made a sound.”
And then there was the night hubby and I (and everyone around us) listened to beeping noises throughout an entire symphony performance. The culprit – low batteries in someone’s hearing aids. Of course, the owner didn’t hear the beeping.
Ok, after I get my ankle, stomach, and broken tooth fixed, I’ll check it out. Wait! We dropped our Costco membership. Guess we better re-up that, too And I promise to keep the volume on my earbuds down to protect what hearing I have left. Well, for most songs at least, except for Led Zeppelin
Finally, here's Garret Morris' take on News for the Hard of Hearing. Enjoy.
Epilogue
Seniors aren't the only people with hearing loss. The National Institute on Deafness reports 14% of people age 20-69 have hearing loss mostly due to noise exposure. (National Institute of Health on Deafness)
References
Ace Ratcliff, I Rely on Closed Captions to Enjoy a Show and I Don't Appreciate Netflix's Way of Censoring Them, Self.com, July 10, 2018
What is real-time captioning?, Washington.edu, April 9, 2021
Claire Sanford, Are Captions on TV Written by Humans or Speech Recognition Technology?, Rev.Com, May 30, 2021
Kirsten Chuba, Caption This: Why Subtitling Is Big Business Amid the Content Boom, The Hollywood Reporter, June 28, 2023.
Funny Stories About Getting Used to Hearing Aids, Reddit.com,
How true - so on point and amusing.