I Am Worried About My Ears

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/i-am-worried-about-my-ears?currentPage=all

by kawera • 8 years ago

46 60 8 years ago

Faaak4• 8 years ago

When I cycle to work, I sometimes say things to honking drivers that honk for a non serious issue (out of frustration, because they don't want to let someone pass, because they think that someone is stupid, …) because I'm getting fed up with the constant noise.

Half of the drivers say something like: "well, go live in the forest then". I find it incredible that silence is ignored these days and that a noisy city is becoming the norm; it's a shame: it makes us more stressed and less relaxed.

The majority of noises could be suppressed: honkings, old train brakes, motorbikes without an exhaust, …, but people don't really seem to care (but I'm sure it impacts everybody).

usrusr• 8 years ago

If car horns were only half as loud to the honking driver, protected in his glass cage, as they are to a person standing unprotected next to the car, honking would not be much of an issue...

dazc4• 8 years ago

The effect is also worse because you're not expecting it, whereas the driver is.

There are some problems in life where a punch in the mouth seems like the only viable solution.

Kiro• 8 years ago

Where do you live? It sounds like you wouldn't last a minute in India.

Faaak4• 8 years ago

Maybe I wouldn't. I live in Geneva.

foepys• 8 years ago

That doesn't make it less annoying.

KozmoNau7• 8 years ago

When I was in Kolkata a couple years ago, the sheer level of noise was quite impressive.

I would not want to live there, for a variety of reasons, but that is the biggest one.

matte_black• 8 years ago

I hate when someone honks for no reason, makes me want to just reverse back into them.

maddyboo• 8 years ago

What's the deal with obnoxiously loud motorcycles?

I just cannot understand the appeal of riding around on something which molests the eardrums of everyone within a 400ft radius.

barrkel• 8 years ago

In the city it helps make pedestrians, and to a certain degree cars, more aware of you, especially if filtering / lane splitting.

And some people just want attention.

chillingeffect• 8 years ago

People confuse power with competence.

The attention-getting signal of extreme volume followed by the false impression of competence triggers hormonal response of interest.

Drape yourself with the carcass of a dead animal (that someone else prepared) and you're the skin deep image of an alpha seeking procreation opportunities.

If people ever used their heads, motorcycling would retreat to the practical, enjoyable activity it is at baseline. But in a confused society of scarcity, with a curious blind spot to unenforcing this branch of noise laws, the benefits of the "loudness mutation" to the individual are great.

detritus• 8 years ago

I would seriously push for a ban on fat hogs in the city. I've lived in two places here in LDN where neighbours had big fat Harley type bikes with derestricted exhausts loudly advertising the smallness of their civility.

I've often lain awake at 7am listening to these people drive off, impacting the lives of literally thousands — tens of thousands! — of people along whatever route they take.

I can't believe it's tolerated in this context. Go live in Arizona!

BjoernKW• 8 years ago

Compensating for something.

planteen• 8 years ago

I know. I'm happy it's winter in Denver now, because the amount of motorcycle traffic is so much less. The noise motorcycles with pipes produce is right up there with emergency sirens.

shocks2• 8 years ago

It's so that car drivers can hear us and remember to look up from their phones and not kill us.

Seriously though; the noise issue divides even the motorcycle community. Advocates will tell you "loud pipes save lives" and are usually the equivalent of "car guys" that live/breath bikes. Other will tell you that the only defense is defensive riding and it's annoying.

I agree it's annoying, my bike isn't that loud, but anecdotally when I've ridden louder bikes I feel safer; riding a bicycle I feel invisible. I always hear loud bikes before I see them.

I wouldn't mind a louder bike, because I love the sound of engines; but I'd feel self-conscious riding it around my house. The sound wouldn't be a problem for my hearing because I wear custom ear plugs.

0xcde4c3db• 8 years ago

A loud machine seems more powerful. If the sound is deadened, people often feel like something more than the sound is lost. For similar reasons, some new cars play engine noise through the car's stereo system.

lxmorj• 8 years ago

Internalize the externality.

Tie horn honking to a credit card in the car. $1 per second honked. A quick road runner meep-meep cost 20¢. Holding down your horn like a dipshit for 30sec is a bit expensive.

Use those dollars to bolster city taxes.

TomMarius2• 8 years ago

Yeah and what about those cases when you're honking to prevent a crash?

cdoxsey• 8 years ago

In NYC I wear earphones on my way to work and a big chunk of the time I'm not even listening to anything, just blocking out the noise. (subways, buses, cars, fire trucks, ambulances, ... everything here is loud)

I think a certain segment of the population actually enjoys the hustle, bustle and noise... and I suppose they all move to NYC.

crazygringo• 8 years ago

Yup, I wear my Bose noise-cancelling headphones on the subway most of the time without music -- it just takes the edge off the rumble, the noise, the screeching.

It works really well on the subway, since the frequencies tend to be lower (similar to planes). Outdoors it's less effective, since the bothersome noises are the higher-frequency sirens, the beep of backing up, jackhammers...

lloeki• 8 years ago

The author links to a hearing test, but I find it seriously lacking. Basically it's uncalibrated "what's the lowest volume you can hear those three tones at?" followed by a questionnaire.

There are much, much better tests readily available[0], although as always, if you have any doubts seeing a professional and using properly calibrated equipment is best.

[0] http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_hearingtestaudiogram.php

vortico2• 8 years ago

In recent decades, mastering engineers have been tasked with making studio albums louder via the application of something called dynamic range compression; essentially, the volume gets turned up on the quiet bits, and turned down on the loud bits. The cumulative effect is a song that sounds bigger and punchier

The writer doesn't seem to understand loudness here. This is exactly the opposite effect of DRC (dynamic range compression). Music gets less punchier and sounds smaller, as transients are pushed down in the mix. Listening to music with less DRC is more damaging to your ears (although it sounds better), if you are comparing two tracks with equal loudness. Keeping loudness constant in this comparison is valid because we will adjust the volume knob based on the track's psychoacoustic loudness.

Example: https://youtu.be/3Gmex_4hreQ?t=10 and https://youtu.be/3Gmex_4hreQ?t=70 have roughly the same loudness. The first has less DRC and is more damaging to your hearing.

This misunderstanding breaks down half of the article's argument. The other half---that loud music is cooler than it was decades ago---is probably valid I guess.

S_A_P• 8 years ago

It also isn’t really compression that’s being used but brick wall limiting. While many compressors can do a form of this, there are still the usual suspects that started the loudness wars-like waves L2 ultramaximizer. For the most part the egregious over limiting has fallen out of fashion but things way more compressed than they used to be. Light soft knee compression can make things sound a bit punchier since they don’t affect the initial attack transient but boost volume of the remander of the sound.

mortenjorck• 8 years ago

Further, most modern streaming services actually apply a normalization to playback by default. Spotify, for example, normalizes all tracks to -11 LUFS (a scale for perceptual loudness): https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mastering-streaming-...

So something from the peak of the loudness wars (like the Metallica album cited by the author) will actually sound a bit quieter and duller on Spotify than something with -11 LUFS of dynamic range.

vortico2• 8 years ago

Yes, I shouldn't be stealing the term dynamic range compression from the article since that's inaccurate. Hard dynamics would be a better term to describe overcompression, brick wall limiting, and maximizing.

Slow-attack compression certainly makes things sound punchier, but do they increase transients relative to the loudness of the track? No, I still think they can only decrease them.

Hearing is damaged by large absolute volumes of transients, with the small exception that your ears are able to become slightly temporarily desensitized around high levels of loudness. Since higher loudness causes listeners to turn down music, they will also turn down the transients, so loudness makes tracks safer.

Possibly the worst thing to do to your hearing music-wise, is to listen to uncompressed kick drums for half and hour. They might even not sound loud at all, but the pain will start kicking in before you know it.

jasode• 8 years ago

The writer doesn't seem to understand loudness here.

I don't think it's about scientific understanding but rather about using the same descriptive words as everyone else in the audio world.

This is exactly the opposite effect of DRC (dynamic range compression). Music gets less punchier

Yes, you're right (scientifically), but "punchier" as a description for less dynamic range already has a long standing and widespread use. E.g. See numerous examples about adding more compression to reduce the dynamic range to get a punchier sound:

https://www.google.com/search?q=more+compression+punchier

l33tbro• 8 years ago

I used to rely on the New Yorker to give me thought-provoking and meaningful content. Has it really gotten this pedestrian? Our ears are pretty resilient. Yes, jamming earbuds and blasting 'Appetite for Destruction' on the regular is not a great idea and could eventually give you tinnitus or hyperacusis, but isn't that common sense at this point?

dazc4• 8 years ago

Hearing is something we take for granted but when it becomes damaged it's going to stay damaged for good. Seeing how many people today are cocooning themselves in a world of sound, I worry what the consequences are going to be in the next twenty years or so?

I suffer from mild tinnitus and one effect, that most non-sufferers don't appreciate, is that when you're hearing is damaged it doesn't mean you're hearing everything at low volume. Some sound is muffled, sure but higher frequency sounds can be much more acute. This leads to anxiety and stress in public places that other folks find hard to understand.

I am fortunate in that I can work from home or a private office, I'm not forced to spend my days in a shared work space or other noisy environment; I think I would suffer a nervous breakdown if I was?

If you're currently using loud music to cancel out the noise in your workplace, or during your commute to work, stop now and find some other way of dealing with it because damaging your hearing is not the solution.

everyone2• 8 years ago

This article has somewhat of an air of the callowness of youth, or perfect health, about it.

When you're young, your body works perfectly pretty much. The first time you develop an issue with your senses for example, it is quite shocking; going from a state of perfection to imperfection, you focus on that one flaw.

As I age and more stuff is not working optimally, I have just stopped giving a shit about these sort of issues, adopting a 'even the mona lisa's fallin apart' attitude. I dont focus on the flaws, I focus on what I can still do. Even if I'm only physically operating at 80% of my former capacity, say, I'm still capable of accomplishing what I want to if I apply myself.

Jdam• 8 years ago

This is incredibly depressing.

SirZimzim• 8 years ago

What is so depressing? If anything let it be motivation to make use of your body while you're younger. This whole mentality of waiting until retirement to enjoy life is more depressing.

Vinnl• 8 years ago

I hope I will be able to adopt this attitude some time, because right now, the imperfections really bum me out.

everyone2• 8 years ago

Im a big science geek, reading pop-sci books from all fields. One thing I came across is some work on human happiness. Apparently humans have a default state of happiness, which is, 'I'm ok but I could be doing a bit better'. All humans, from millionaires to poverty stricken, are almost always in this state, a relative gain or loss will temporarily make you more or less happy but you will quickly return to this default. As an evolutionary trait it makes sense, a successful species wont be totally depressed and suicidal, or be totally blissed out, not bothering to compete for resources and mates. Also on a physiological level your body will produce a certain amount of dopamine and serotonin and other mood chemicals.

The upshot of all this is that unless you are clinically depressed or have some serotonin production deficiency or some-such, then other ailments, hearing and vision impairment wont really affect your overall happiness. They will initially but then you will get used to that state and your happiness will return to its status quo level.

rqs• 8 years ago

I think the main focus here is to not hurting yourself rather than "focus on the flaws".

I mean, if something is harm to you, you may need to consider stop doing it before you been damaged permanently. Reduce the volume in this case for example.

It's not saying you should stop listening music or enjoying your life, but you need to protect yourself from been hurt by doing those. After all, how can somebody listening music after became a deaf?

kalleboo• 8 years ago

The first time you develop an issue with your senses for example, it is quite shocking; going from a state of perfection to imperfection, you focus on that one flaw

Indeed. I caught an ear infection in my 20's. I woke up and thought I was completely deaf in one ear. I went to an ear clinic and they did a hearing test, and the doctor said the results showed that while one ear was worse than the other, the results were still in the "normal" range!

sirwitti2• 8 years ago

Many things got mixed up here, let me try to untangle some of them:

There are many different types of hearing loss and hearing impairments. Damaged Hair-cells (actually it's the stereocilia) are only one type that happens mostly to people who are exposed to high sound pressure over a long time (or very high sound pressure over short time). Constant noise of a city is not nearly loud enough to do that physiologically.

But listening with inear headphones can and will damage your hair cells if you listen too loud regularly.

Regarding hearing tests: Forget online hearing tests - they're total bullshit. Even many of the tests done by professionals result in useless data because it's you who needs to tell them whether or not you hear a specific frequency. And the result only compares your abilities to a standard for your age (see below about individuality). Therefor the results are highly dependent on you're psyche, health, mood,...

Another mixup is sound pressure (physical volume) vs subjective loudness. High sound pressure can damage your hair cells, high loudness cannot if sound pressure is reasonably low. While the thing with loudness wars is bothersome sometimes, it's not dangerous.

Oh I forgot about frequency related hearing loss: Many people think that you can hear 20-20000Hz, but this is only a rough estimation and more importantly highly individual and age related. So it's totally possible that your same-age friend does or does not hear frequencies you do. Most people don't get past 16-17k at all. Secondly, the highest frequencies you're able to perceive get lower and lower as you get older. Many old people can't perceive frequencies higher than 8-10kHz. While they hear worse then others the critical frequency areas for speech (formants) lie way below that. Even music perception works quite fine (although it won't be that crisp anymore).

Tinnitus is another story which can have so many causes (destroyed haircells being only one), stress, tendons in the neck and some others.

So don't pull up the volume unnecessarily on your earphones and you'll be fine.

Edit: Fixed typos.

andreaferretti• 8 years ago

What about noise cancelling earphones? They should allow to listen to music much less loud - any adverse effect is known?

sirwitti2• 8 years ago

Yes as far as I know that's a pretty good reason to use noise cancelling earphones. You could still turn the volume up too high though if you didn't care about it.

snarfy2• 8 years ago

I'm not sure if it's normal, but I can flex the muscles inside my ears. When I do it I can hear the muscles trembling loudly which overpowers other sounds. It helps reduce the noise level and pain if there is a loud noise, especially when I cannot put my fingers in my ears.

4ad• 8 years ago

Careful with this, you might be doing more than just flexing your tensor tympani muscle, you might also control the pressure inside your ear.

I can do both of these. The latter is rather dangerous in the long term, although in the short term it does reduce the perceived volume quite a bit. For some reason when I was a kid I preferred a negative pressure in my ears which deformed my eardrum. I still do and I concisely need to remind myself to reset the pressure back to normal.

andscoop• 8 years ago

Do you have any more info on this? I have unilateral deafness and am constantly increasing the pressure of my good ear throughout the day by popping it. (The way I do this is sort by blowing a quick burst of air out my nose and clicking my ear at the same time.) I have long worried it may not be healthy but I have been doing it for years and have no recorded hearing loss from it, I continue to do it because the added volume it gives me is sometimes the difference between having to ask "what?" a third time in a row.

JCharante• 8 years ago

The vasalva manuever results in the same effect. We have manual control of a muscle that lets us sync the pressure in our inner ears. I haven't met anyone in person, but there are others at r/earrumblersassemble

snarfy2• 8 years ago

Subscribed. Thanks.

maho• 8 years ago

Worry not, dear author! Being mindful of your inner-ear health is certainly a good habit, but (moderate) hearing loss is not as scary as you might think.

I have oteosclerosis with accompanying inner-ear damage after stapedectomy or -dotomy, I forgot. I lost 10-20dB on one ear, 20-40dB on the other. I am amazed how much psychoacoustics save the day. Music does feel a little different, but it is no less beatiful to listen to. In some pieces I discovered brass sections I never truly appreciated, but most songs did not change by much. More importantly, my kids and I are still able to sing together as before.

The bothersome bits about hearing loss are having to ask "could you repeat that?" a lot, not hearing quiet sounds (kid's breathing at night, oncoming cars at a distance), and being more sensitive to loud noises. But so far, music stayed beatiful.

ps: If anyone from Netflix is reading this, it would be amazing if I could set a N-second delay for subtitles so that they don't spoil the jokes for me and everyone else. Even better would be if I could view them on my cell phone while we all watch on the big screen. I don't need subtitles all the time, just occasionally, for the bits I didn't understand.

nefitty• 8 years ago

I second your Netflix suggestion. I can't watch dialogue-driven comedy with subtitles on, due to the timing.

badpun• 8 years ago

Hearing loss is one thing, but the tinnitus that often goes with it can at the worst destroy your career and your life (people do commit suicides because of it).

Yizahi• 8 years ago

Two unrelated thoughts:

1) While degrading sound quality the dynamic range compression actually helps with sound damage since you can hear quiet parts of a record without turning volume to eleven. Sure, it is nice to listen sometimes to Deep Purple or Beethoven 9th with proper dynamic range but it is rather taxing on ears in the louder parts then and probably not advisable in long run.

2) It looks like every singe headphone user I've encountered listens on insanely loud volume. Whenever I listen to someones work/home setup or stand near a listener in a bus/subway etc. in exactly 100% of cases the volume is too much for me (and I use headphones for two decades already). Tl;dr - turn volume down if you care about your ears.

I Am Worried About My Ears

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