I kinda regard ANC and smart watches as pacifiers for adults. The real world is only going to hurt more the longer you stay attached to the teat.
Do you feel the same about other wearable tech, like clothes and shoes?
A bit with shoes if worn all the time. They destroy your arches, toe splay, and hip alignment with your spine. And you become dependant because your feet get so soft and sensitive. Plus people drag those dirty things all over their homes.
Calling shoes and clothes wearable tech is quite a stretch. Particularly compared to smart watches and headphones. Why did you make that false equivalence?
Plus people drag those dirty things all over their homes.
Yeah, I’m glad I married someone who’s adamant about not wearing shoes in the house.
I’m wondering if the cause and effect are the other way around, people that have trouble with noise (such as people with APD) might want noise cancelling headphones. The rise in cases of APD might indicate otherwise, but with the information provided, it sounds like it might be under-diagnosed anyway.
The first thing many people used to assume is that if you had any problems with listening, you might be somewhat deaf. APD and other difficulties listening definitely aren’t deafness, but I wonder if there is increased awareness of other reasons why someone might have difficulty understanding speech.
As the world become more and more noisy. And people become more a more shitty with regards of doing noise without care about how it affects others. ANC become a necessity for some people.
but her audiologist believes the overuse of noise-cancelling headphones, which Sophie wears for up to five hours a day, could have a part to play.
Me, wearing my noise-cancelling headphones for 10+ hours a day …
I have my noise cancelling airpods pro, but never use ANC because it has that white noise sound I don’t like. It’s basically blasting more noise in your earhole to drown out/cancel out the noise around you.
Yeah, ANC quality can vary a lot and generally it’s even worse for earbuds.
I have a pair of Bose QC Ultra headphones which have amazing ANC.
A few month back there was a constuction site across the street. At one point I felt my desk vibrating, so I took of my headphones … only then did I realised they were using a jackhammer.
Similar story here, Bose QC whilst the house next door was (basically) being demolished… I just found the headphones ate batteries faster.
I sometimes find I’m just working with the headphones on and whatever I was listening to had stopped ages ago.
by blocking everyday sounds such as cars beeping, there is a possibility the brain can “forget” to filter out the noise.
Also growing up in the quiet countryside, I can say that you do not “forget” to hear sounds like cars… it’s definitely the everyday background noise that’s the problem.
So wait, I’m not just a grumpy old man who doesn’t like a lot of noise, this is actually a disorder?
Honestly though it’s an interesting question and I wonder if this is just the “natural state.” I really started to feel it after I went RVing for a year. It’s a relatively recent (in the overall span of humanity) development that people would be in groups large enough to make this be an issue.
‘Words sound like gibberish’
What? This article is confusing as hell.
I use mine a lot, but I don’t have problems telling where sounds are coming from or understanding what is being said.
Tbh this just sounds like ADHD or something.
Tbh this just sounds like ADHD or something.
It’s APD (Auditory Processing Disorder). That’s explained in the article.
Guess I didn’t read that far 😅
“It doesn’t happen to me, so it must not be a real thing”
So this could be boiled down to “use or lose it”. Idk, maybe this might be part of it. Maybe a part of the prevalence of short form media blah blah attention span.
I am glad to see us respect our link-aggregation heritage of ignoring the article and starting heated discussions based on what we infer from the headline. 😂
It also seems that the headline currently on the article is different and switches out clickbait tactics from misleading omission to absurd pearl-clutching: “Are noise-cancelling headphones to blame for young people’s hearing problems?” If you combine them, you get something closer to actual content of the article.
It also seems that the headline currently on the article is different and switches out
Both are present in the article; they don’t switch out. One is the title (as you can see in the title bar of a desktop web browser) and the other is the top-level heading of the text.
Looks like Lemmy picked up the former, which makes sense considering the document structure. BBC probably should have used the same phrase in both places.
I poked around a few other articles. A few are identical. Most are slight variations. Few are as different as these two. My guess would be that the original submission from the author or initial editor locks in a headline for the tab/title bar, but then the CMS lets them edit what appears in the main body of the webpage.
Bad title. The article examines whether specifically noise-cancelling headphones may be involved in listening issues.
Oh boy I hope not, I love noise cancelation lol. I figure it’s gotta be better than upping the volume to override the noise around me.
Did the boomboxes-next-to-heads and the walkmans of the '80s and discmans of the '90s not count? I think a lot of game boy users also used headhpones.
I actually didn’t use them that much at all, but I still have trouble hearing with background noise. Noise-cancelling headphones have actually been an amazing thing in my life because (a) it helps overstimulation and anxiety and (b) it actually helps me hear someone talking to me because it filters out the other stuff. I suspect my problems are a combination of mostly-neurological (ADHD and probably (though not officially) ASD) and maybe impacted by loud concerts and general aging-related stuff. I can still hear really high-pitched sounds and the like whereas many of my peers around my age and younger can’t as well, but it’s all mud to me when there’s a lot of sound.
this isn’t a hearing loss issue, the hypothesis is that noise-cancelling headphones specifically are causing our brains to not filter out random noises neurologically.
True. They also mention the person’s rural upbringing and then moving to the city. That mirrors my experience and my hearing issues pre-date using noise canceling headphones. I always had a rough time anywhere there were lots of people and noise, but it just wasn’t super common previously (I grew up in rural Ohio and have lived in some big US cities.followed by nearly a decade in Tokyo).
I have ADHD and sometimes can’t focus to do more brain intensive work if I’m in a room with a bunch of people talking. Street/background noise doesn’t bother me at all. I grew up suburb rural adjacent but I’ve worked in huge cities for long periods and it just doesn’t bother me like six people having two conversations would.
The woman in the article is also just a single example. They mention that this condition is on the rise in general.
I knew earphones made you lose your hearing faster but headphones causing issues too? Guess the only safe option are speakers :/
The cause of Sophie’s APD diagnosis is unknown, but her audiologist believes the overuse of noise-cancelling headphones, which Sophie wears for up to five hours a day, could have a part to play.
Other audiologists agree, saying more research is needed into the potential effects of their prolonged use.
That looks to me like, “audiologists have no bloody clue where this issue is coming from, and are therefore throwing shit at the wall in the hope that something will stick.”
Nope it’s a very reasonable hypothesis. “Symptom X suddenly occurs frequently. That started when people started doing Y. According to our understanding, Y has a direct impact on the functioning of X”. Causation has still to be established formally but it’d be quite surprising if it was mere correlation, as in it would overturn the understanding audiologists have about how things work.
Bluntly said: If you never train filtering out noise, then you suck at filtering out noise. That looks dead obvious, if it’s wrong, then in a very, very interesting way. General relativity vs. Newtonian mechanics kind of interesting.
The problem is not the hypothesis, the problem is that it isn’t really presented as a hypothesis. Reporting on the results before doing the experiment isn’t the way to go.
Our theories of how the world works are necessarily incomplete, and experiments turn up things that overturn scientific understanding often enough. The way this is set up matches a common pattern of vilifying tech without seeing whether it’s deserved or not. Maybe not wearing a noise cancellation headset would, in fact, help this patient, but until that’s tested and found out to be true, reporting on it is just spreading FUD.
her audiologist believes
(emphasis mine). Belief is colloquial speech for working hypothesis. Her prescription will have been along the lines of “ease on those headphones, go to a forest or park and just listen, use them only if you really feel them to be necessary, try to expose yourself”.
“Nothing can ever be acted upon unless we have a meta-study examining fifty double-blind studies” is pseudoscepticism.
it’s a hypothesis worth studying.
Sure, but it’s still pretty irresponsible of the BBC to publish what is effectively educated guesses as something to be concerned about.
This belongs in an academic article. Not a news one.
No it’s not. Experts in their field are seeing a strong correlation in behaviors that could harm your health. It’s the perfect place for an audiologist to speak to this issue.
We also had an expert who started the vacines cause autism trying to peddle a new replacement for the MMR vaccine. (This is my opinion based on the research done Here )Just because “an expert” says something, doesn’t mean it’s true. And blindly listening to them can cause harm as well.
This is a fallacy called Argument of authority
No, it’s completely irresponsible to say something not peer reviewed and actually studied.
There was never even a shred of proper science behind the autism causes vaccines thing, and it was a very very very very minority opinion.
Does gravity exist on Alpha Centrauri? Ask any physicist, they’re going to say “yes”. You’re then going to stand there, saying “we have not actually made the necessary experiments on Alpha Centauri itself, we do not have conclusive evidence, all those people are peddling pseudoscience”. Never mind that all that we know about physics leads us to the extrapolation that, yes, gravity exists there and we have no reason to think why there isn’t gravity there. Could that extrapolation be wrong? Yes. But it’s also a silly thing to insist onto working into the plans of a colonialisation spaceship. All you’re achieving with that is having it never be built, bogging shit down in unsubstantiated scepticism.
You are right there’s never been any credible evidence.
But I wasn’t claiming that.
I was claiming it was irresponsible to report on such an early finding in the media without proper verification and actual conclusive studies.
Almost like the BBC article here in question.
They’re reporting on what the audiologists observe and believe to be the case, and clearly label it as such: A belief, with further study necessary. People thinking they could be affected by this might take action after reading the article, true, and the action would be – easing off on using sound-cancelling headphones. That could, in the end, not help. What would be the harm done? Neither the science was misrepresented, it was portrayed as incomplete, “here’s our educated guess”, and the recommendations one can draw from that guess are quite inconceivable to cause harm themselves.
Have a look again at what the Hippocratic oath states: First, do no harm. They’re keeping to that. Ease off. You can tell a patient to try dialling back on their coffee consumption before having conclusive proof that that’s what’s causing their jitters: Less coffee won’t kill them.
If a hypothesis is untestable, then it is a guess, and not scientific.
it’s not untestable, they just haven’t actually done it yet. In fact they say in the article research is needed.
Exactly.
Is she wearing high heels every day? Could be bullshit, but could be related. 🙄
I’m not buying it that it is headphone-related. I wear headphones nearly all of the time, I’ve listened to music loudly for years on end, I’ve had to deal with loud screeches, loud noise wherever I go, lived and worked.
It is totally an environmental thing. Plus, the article had already wrapped up what the problem was and a normal hearing test came back negative.
But they haaaaaad to find a reason in the next line. Just had to.
they’re not saying it’s a headphones thing in general. they’re saying it may be a noise-cancelling headphones thing.
Have fun. I have Tinnitus.
From just headphone use? No, disagreed. From loud music? I used it as an example, I don’t listen to loud music constantly as much anymore. You can’t avoid Tinnitus because even if you didn’t listen to loud music all of the time, being surrounded by loud noise in general will eventually get you there. I work in a store where people slam pallets down (for no stupid reason), screech pallet jacks, have noisy pallet jacks in general, ladder carts squeal and screech. We’re not allowed to protect our ears because “CONSOOMER FIRST” priority.
Plus, where I live, people slam their doors around, they holler, babies and kids throwing fits. Yeah, it doesn’t matter if I listen to loud music or not, I will develop Tinnitus because of the environments. It’s an environment thing.
We’re not allowed to protect our ears because “CONSOOMER FIRST” priority.
If you exposed to loud noises in your work environment (depending on the exposure time and loudness dB level), you should indeed protect your ears. In fact, by law your company should protect their employees from loud noise exposure and use proper hearing protection (so not the cheap stuff either).
If they don’t meet these standards, you have the right to report the issue to workplace safety authorities or your company’s health and safety officer. Employers are legally required to conduct noise assessments and provide adequate hearing protection, such as high-quality earmuffs or earplugs rated for the specific decibel levels in your work environment.
Trust me, if you are indeed exposed to loud noises can lead to irreversible hearing damage. I don’t care so much about hearing loss, but Tinnitus on the other hand is killing my live. My Tinnitus has had me in its grip for years now. I can’t commute to work anymore, I can’t just go and do fun things anymore, hack I can’t even join a birthday party when there are too many people. It is really suffering. And there is NO cure. #Tinnitus
I pretty much never go outside without headphones now. I haven’t noticed any problems with comprehending speech or sounds like described here. Sensory issues (as in being easily overwhelmed) were long gone before I got addicted to headphones. However, mother complains I am constantly speaking too loud without even recognizing it, and blames it on my hearing loss. However, I KNOW my hearing is good, because I can still hear a subtle shrill sound of a power supply on the other end of the room, even loudly enough to be bothered by it! I wonder if this could be because of headphones, that just feels peculiar.
Yeah that could be, if the headphones make you sound quieter to yourself.
Personally I have the opposite problem, when I wear earplugs out at a loud venue, I can hear myself better and end up talking too quietly.
I mean this happens in conversations, after some time has passed since I’ve worn headphones.
The cause of Sophie’s APD diagnosis is unknown, but her audiologist believes the overuse of noise-cancelling headphones, which Sophie wears for up to five hours a day, could have a part to play.
So fucking stupid…
Kid grew up on a quiet farm in the countryside, then she moved to London and probably 100+ student plus lectures.
It’s not that noise cancelling headphones prevented her from developing normally, she developed in an environment like what we evolved to handle.
Then she got thrown into a cacophony of sound that is one of the planets largest/busiest cities…
And they act like she is the problem and not noise pollution?
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-024-00642-5
Noise pollution is fucking a lot of us up, and people who grew up with it are used to it, but that doesn’t stop the negative consequences of it. Someone that never had to deal with it is obviously going to have what looks like a sudden onset of a condition, but the person is fine.
The environment is the problem.
She is just an example, they say this issue is on the rise in general.
Five NHS audiology departments have told the BBC that there has been an increase in the number of young people referred to them from GPs with hearing issues - only to find their hearing is normal when tested and it is their ability to process sound that is struggling.
APD is more common in neurodivergent people, those who have suffered from a brain injury or had a middle-ear infection as a child. However, more patients with APD are presenting outside of those categories, leaving audiologists to question if external factors, such as noise-cancelling headphones, are contributing.
