OK, a silly title, but bear with me, as a genuine question follows.

Has there been an increase in deafness and/or hearing loss in recent years?

I’m noticing more and more people with hearing aids, across all age groups. Is it just that I’m spotting more, or is there an increase happening?

More people are dying after going deaf.

It’s that thing where you only see stuff that’s particularly relevant to your own age group. I keep noticing nice jumpers.

I agree with you, CFH. I have wondered if it isn’t just because diagnosis and treatment isn’t just getting better.

I have a friend with a hearing aid, who is deaf in the one ear without it. He considers it to be just like using glasses.

And if hearing care is being increasingly thought of this way, then it is likely a good thing.

Maybe just more people aware that they have some form of hearing loss. i keep telling my brother he needs a hearing aid, it’s why the fecker is so loud and is always accussing me of mubbling(fair enough I do mubble, but that’s not the point. 😆 )

Irritates the hell out me that he won’t get one. same with my mum, she’s got one but never uses it, tele is deafening in her house!

It’s just your age and the era you’ve entered into, tis da crewz yo hangin wiv. Zimma time soonz. 😉

I’m a hearing aid wearer – (left ear – right ear is perfect!).

It may be down to better diagnosis, but I bet a lot is down to the likes of Boots and Specsavers making them more accessible without having to go through loads of appointments like I went through when I first got mine 12+ years ago.

Zimma time soonz

What’s that dearie – summer time? Oooh, lovely !

Confirmation bias?

This reminds me of a Douglas Adams tale, about how he came up with the idea for H2G2.

The idea for the title first cropped up while I was lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1971. Not particularly drunk, just the sort of drunk you get when you have a couple of stiff Gossers after not having eaten for two days straight, on account of being a penniless hitchhiker. We are talking of a mild inability to stand up.

I was traveling with a copy of the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to Europe by Ken Walsh, a very battered copy that I had borrowed from someone. In fact, since this was 1971 and I still have the book, it must count as stolen by now. I didn’t have a copy of Europe on Five Dollars a Day (as it then was) because I wasn’t in that financial league.

Night was beginning to fall on my field as it spun lazily underneath me. I was wondering where I could go that was cheaper than Innsbruck, revolved less and didn’t do the sort of things to me that Innsbruck had done to me that afternoon. What had happened was this. I had been walking through the town trying to find a particular address, and being thoroughly lost I stopped to ask for directions from a man in the street. I knew this mightn’t be easy because I don’t speak German, but I was still surprised to discover just how much difficulty I was having communicating with this particular man. Gradually the truth dawned on me as we struggled in vain to understand each other that of all the people in Innsbruck I could have stopped to ask, the one I had picked did not speak English, did not speak French and was also deaf and dumb. With a series of sincerely apologetic hand movements, I disentangled myself, and a few minutes later, on another street, I stopped and asked another man who also turned out to be deaf and dumb, which was when I bought the beers.

I ventured back onto the street. I tried again.

When the third man I spoke to turned out to be deaf and dumb and also blind I began to feel a terrible weight settling on my shoulders; wherever I looked the trees and buildings took on dark and menacing aspects. I pulled my coat tightly around me and hurried lurching down the street, whipped by a sudden gusting wind. I bumped into someone and stammered an apology, but he was deaf and dumb and unable to understand me. The sky loured. The pavement seemed to tip and spin. If I hadn’t happened then to duck down a side street and pass a hotel where a convention for the deaf was being held, there is every chance that my mind would have cracked completely and I would have spent the rest of my life writing the sort of books for which Kafka became famous and dribbling.

As it is I went to lie in a field, along with my Hitch Hiker’s Guide to Europe, and when the stars came out it occurred to me that if only someone would write a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as well, then I for one would be off like a shot. Having had this thought I promptly fell asleep and forgot about it for six years.

It is just the peer group you hang around with. 😆

OP,

Is that a surprise? More Headphones? Trying to look cool with headphone and loud music etc?

I can bet you the number of young people wearing glasses will increase too in the next few years. Notice the number of people reading from their mobile phone?

the-muffin-man – Member
I’m a hearing aid wearer – (left ear – right ear is perfect!).

It may be down to better diagnosis, but I bet a lot is down to the likes of Boots and Specsavers making them more accessible without having to go through loads of appointments like I went through when I first got mine 12+ years ago.

POSTED 14 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Thinking about it, that makes excellent sense. Diagnosis must be a part of it, but I hadn’t really considered the ease of access element. Thanks.

Maybe also that they are now not so massively obtrusive as they were, so people less disinclined to use them?

I have a Star Trek hearing aid – it’s fitted to my final front ear.

Ahem.

Anyway, the Walkman was launched around 40 years ago, maybe we’re just seeing the effects of lots of loud music?

Maybe also that they are now not so massively obtrusive as they were, so people less disinclined to use them?

Valid.

Good points here folks, thanks.

I see cracked iPhones. Seems to be about 1 in 3 has a broken screen.

25% loss here. Whilst theare is easy availability and better diagnostic techniques much of hearing loss like mine is caused by industrial noise. The NHS hearing aids a few years ago were horrible. Now they are the same as the best from the high street. Easy and simple to get an appointment to. Well done NHS, technology and lower prices! It’s horrible not being able to hear. Ruins your relationships and enjoyment of life

@pawsy – at what point did you start wearing a hearing aid? What was the reaction of family/friends/colleagues?

Speak Up!

Hearing aid wearer here. I have c50% upper register hearing loss equally in both ears caused by hereditary nerve deafness (my father , his father etc. back into the mists of time were as deaf as posts – mercifully, my two boys’ hearng is fine).

Completely in the ear canal hearing aids are so good and small these days, barely anyone notices I’m wearing them. They do however cost the equivalent of a kidney though. Each.

They do however cost the equivalent of a kidney though. Each.

That’s why I stick with NHS ones!

It’s those discos in the 60s and 70s. I blame Bowie.

Blame the single-minded determination of this guy and his quest for world domination

“You sign ‘stealth dropper routing'”

Eh?
What?
What are you saying Man..
Speak Up 🙄

Which reminds me of a video of a signed version of Inbetweeners that correspondents may have seen, that I shan’t post here (proper funny and readily googled using ‘inbetweeners’ and ‘sign language’).

People are living longer so more will need hearing aids ?

I am surprised you noticed as the modern aids are very discrete.

@pawsy – at what point did you start wearing a hearing aid? What was the reaction of family/friends/colleagues?

Please note, in my case its loss of quality. So people raising their voices is a waste of time. Its tonal. Some people I can hear fine in almost every situation. So don’t shout at deaf people. Speak slowly, pronounce your words. BBC presenters are ace 🙂

Your hearing deteriorates so slowly you don’t notice it. I was about 48 – 49 when I was having lots of hearing tests and then got my first hearing aid. Very discrete in the ear. But since then I’m not bothered. I have the biggest ones I can find. Hearing aids are ok for some loss but in my case they aren’t much use because of tonal loss. Relationship was difficult and eventually broke up. No one is going to tell you its because they cant stand talking to you and you answering everything wrong, you answer what you think they said. Conversation in the car or areas with back ground noise, no chance.

Young people, make sure you look after your hearing. I didn’t and paid the price. It has a large impact on you and isolates you. Don’t phone me, its a waste of time. Text, email or messenger 🙂