Hearing has a very high emotional resolution, but there is a risk of overload
It’s not just vision that’s overloaded because of technology. The ears are too. In the last eight years, searches for “tinnitus” on Google have exploded. Searches for “ear plugs” and “noise cancellation”, mapped on Google Trends, have also grown.
All this hyperactivity also shows up in the numbers. One of Apple’s most profitable products is the Airpods wireless headphones. The company sells around 20 million of them every quarter. On their own, they generate annual revenues of US$14.5 billion, more than the combined revenues of Spotify and Twitter. By the time you’re reading this, there will be around 100 million people with a pair of Airpods in their ears. Maybe you’re one of them.
The ear is our most intimate sense. Listening to a good podcast creates a feeling of intimacy that no other media can provide. After all, audio has a very high emotional resolution, unlike video.
But this also increases the problem of overload. The more intense the sounds, the less we should be exposed to them. The noise from a busy cafรฉ (90 decibels) is only safely tolerated for up to four hours. A nightclub or concert can generate 115 decibels. At that level, it only takes seven minutes of exposure to be potentially harmful.
In today’s world, we have completely lost control of our noise environment, whether at home, at work or in public places. This loss of control is the impetus for the search for plugs, headphones and noise-canceling technologies. Created in the 1950s to reduce cabin noise for airplane pilots, today they are everywhere. They are one of the distinguishing features of Apple’s Airpods. You put the headset in your ear and it miraculously reduces ambient noise, creating individual sound insulation.
As The Guardian’s science columnist Donna Lu points out, multiple studies have shown that constant use of earbuds can also lead to tinnitus. On Apple’s own website there is a forum to discuss whether the use of Airpods is causing ringing in the ears. There are several reports and more than 2,800 people agree that the problem applies to them.
Interestingly, the headphone and hearing aid industries seem to be experiencing a moment of convergence. For example, the popular headphone brand Sennheiser is owned by Sonova, a manufacturer of hearing aids and cochlear implants. Apple itself is marketing its Airpods as being able to be used for hearing aids. It gives the impression of a kind of poison pill: a kind of chocolate laxative, in which the chocolate causes constipation that can be improved by the laxative.
Although there have been advances in various areas related to well-being, nutrition and mental health, hearing health remains alarmingly on the periphery of our collective consciousness. For those with ringing in the ears, it’s worth remembering that it carries a message: don’t let our negligence and carelessness, as individuals or as a society, lead us down the path of irreversible silence.