Poll: Do You Feel Obligated to Warn Others If You Notice They Are Damaging Their Hearing?

[Jack Straw]

In my office there are multiple people who play music at EXCESSIVE levels with headphones on. I can be 15 feet away AND in my cublical and still hear their music being blasted. It is so loud that I can even sometimes tell what song they are listening to. Their level of music doesn't bother me personally, but I fear for their hearing damage. I somewhat feel obligated to say something and warn them.

I am conflicted with what to do. Everyone has the right to do as they please in regards to their health and body. They obviously know that hearing loss is occurring by listening to music like that, but I also can't help the urge to tell them that there are FAR worse things than hearing loss.

What do you guys do in situations like this?

 

[Ed209]

In my office there are multiple people who play music at EXCESSIVE levels with headphones on. I can be 15 feet away AND in my cublical and still hear their music being blasted. It is so loud that I can even sometimes tell what song they are listening to. Their level of music doesn't bother me personally, but I fear for their hearing damage. I somewhat feel obligated to say something and warn them.

I am conflicted with what to do. Everyone has the right to do as they please in regards to their health and body. They obviously know that hearing loss is occurring by listening to music like that, but I also can't help the urge to tell them that there are FAR worse things than hearing loss.

What do you guys do in situations like this?

Give them a friendly, easy-going, heads up. You don't have to go in all guns blazing, but if you warn them of what can potentially happen then you'll feel guilt-free if they ever get T after they chose to ignore you, which is almost certainly what they'll do. However, you just never know. Maybe your warning actually would make some of them turn the volume down and you may save someone from T & H.

If it was my office, I'd step in and have a word.

 

[Jack Straw]

Give them a friendly, easy-going, heads up. You don't have to go in all guns blazing, but if you warn them of what can potentially happen then you'll feel guilt-free if they ever get T after they chose to ignore you, which is almost certainly what they'll do. However, you just never know. Maybe your warning actually would make some of them turn the volume down and you may save someone from T & H.

If it was my office, I'd step in and have a word.

I agree this is the right thing to do and I want to do it. I just need to find a way to approach it properly and respectfully.

 

[Bill Bauer]

The only thing that holds me back from talking about this with my co-workers, with the students, etc., is the thought that one of those people might be assholian enough to set off the fire alarm.

 

[Eric N]

I don't anymore, nobody listens, I have a family member who uses earbuds everyday and is also on an many ototoxic meds for long periods of time. My warnings fall on deaf ears.

 

[Bill Bauer]

I just need to find a way to approach it properly and respectfully.

I am not sure why you need to jump through hoops in an attempt to convince them. Just tell them what T is and that there is no cure.

The best possible outcome would be for them to stop abusing their ears and to not get T. If you Tell someone about T, and they dismiss it and then get T, wouldn't it be a good (and fair) outcome? The way I see it, the worst (most unfair) outcome is if they ignore your advice, act recklessly and then end up not getting T.

 

[Julien87]

I don't anymore, nobody listens, I have a family member who uses earbuds everyday and is also on an many ototoxic meds for long periods of time. My warnings fall on deaf ears.

Same here.. My brother keeps listening to music at full blast.

 

[Luman]

Most people, the majority of the time, just don't listen.

 

[Agrajag364]

Yes, I had a chat about tinnitus and hearing loss with a 30 something workman using massively loud tools without protection, he said he'd already started to get hearing loss but he was careless with his protection but thanked me and said he'd be more careful. I can imagine being told to f-off in other circumstances though. Also told young colleague I was supervising that I'd been a constant headphone user like her in my 20s and about tinnitus.....don't think she took it on though! No one wants to nag but most people just have no idea about protecting their ears.

As others have said there there are public health campaigns about all sorts of things and in many ways we live in a risk averse safety aware culture so it's surprising there are not more public warnings about damage to hearing...........and that restaurants/pubs/clubs are allowed to have music as loud as they do.

 

[dpdx]

No, I want more people to suffer with this disease. That way we get a cure quicker.

 

[Ed209]

No, I want more people to suffer with this disease. That way we get a cure quicker.

That's a bit of a selfish outlook, to be honest. The only way a cure will come quicker is by getting more funding into tinnitus research. Also, the tinnitus community need to make a lot more noise and need to be more involved in general.

 

[Arseny]

I think people who are abusing their ears are immune to tinnitus.

What I mean is that if they don't have tinnitus at this point they will probably never have it.

Several of my friends are blasting music in their headphones at 100% and they sleep in absolute silence.

They got very prominent hidden hearing loss. I have to constantly repeat everything to them.

 

[Bill Bauer]

The only way a cure will come quicker is by getting more funding into tinnitus research. Also, the tinnitus community need to make a lot more noise and need to be more involved in general.

So how does what you said above contradict what dpdx said? The only reliable way to get more funding into T research is to ensure that more people get T. He is just pointing out that this outcome would be benefit us.

In fact, if only one could be sure that more funding would result in a cure being developed in a timely manner, giving T to everyone could be the socially desirable thing to do that would minimize the total number of hours the people in one's country spend suffering from tinnitus.

 

[Holly1987]

Oh yes 100% I can't help it. I will tell anyone that will listen including the poor girl who washed my hair at the hairdresser the other day.
She was enthralled

 

[Bill Bauer]

No, I want more people to suffer with this disease. That way we get a cure quicker.

LOL

Perhaps we ought to begin advising the newbies that it is beneficial to get exposed to more noise. This will result in more suicides due to debilitating T, and hopefully eventually that would translate into more T research funding!

I can finally see the logic behind the posts advising people to behave as if their ears haven't been compromised. Smart.

 

[Ed209]

The only reliable way to get more funding into T research is to ensure that more people get T.

This is a bizarre way of looking at things. There are already millions around the world with this condition but there aren't many advocates/activists. What we need is for more people to step out of the shadows and to actually do something. There's nowhere near enough noise being made out there in the real world (excuse the pun).

I recently made a post - which was a call-to-action - and it received one like and one reply. Inaction does not promote change, and yet, the smallest of tasks is far too much for the vast majority.

Why do so few want to help change the way tinnitus is viewed and treated?

 

[lucy_snow]

No, I want more people to suffer with this disease. That way we get a cure quicker.

Maybe we do not need so many people,
Elon Musk's girlfriend suffers from T, maybe we have to convince her, to convince Elon, to give that lack of funding that Josef Rauschecker needs to him and he will finally find a cure to us.

 

[Bill Bauer]

I recently made a post - which was a call-to-action - and it received one like and one reply.

The only time "change" happens is when the elites want the change. One example of this is what is happening in France right now. The people held protests for more than 10 weeks, and nobody cares: the bottom-up approach never works. Top-down is where it's at. Ignoring reality (by assuming that things are the way you want them to be, or the way you think they ought to be) won't help us to achieve our goals.

 

[Ed209]

The only time "change" happens is when the elites want the change. One example of this is what is happening in France right now. The people held protests for more than 10 weeks, and nobody cares: the bottom-up approach never works. Top-down is where it's at. Ignoring reality (by assuming that things are the way you want them to be, or the way you think they ought to be) won't help us to achieve our goals.

And this mentality, in a nutshell, is the problem. You have a very odd view of the world if you think the right way to go is to give more people tinnitus.

I'd happily make mine worse if it cured everyone else.

 

[Bill Bauer]

You have a very odd view of the world if you think the right way to go is to give more people tinnitus.

It Would work to increase research funding, but that doesn't mean that someone could (or should) pull it off. Basically, if this is our only hope (and it is), then there is no hope...

 

[Ed209]

It Would work to increase research funding, but that doesn't mean anyone could (or should) pull it off. Basically, if this is our only hope (and it is), then there is no hope...

Then you're defeated before you've begun. That's a very weak trait. The tinnitus community is huge and it absolutely has the power to effect change if everybody acted upon their convictions.

I'll repeat what I've said before:

Success breeds success. No one ever solves a problem by doing nothing. Even if it's a monumental challenge: no one climbs Everest whilst sitting on the sofa.

A pebble is tiny and insignificant, but drop a load of them into a torrent of water and they have the power to stop it. Suddenly, they become significant.

We are the pebbles.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Even if it's a monumental challenge: no one climbs Everest whilst sitting on the sofa.

No one will be able to do anything about the ocean tide by sitting on the sofa. However, if all you have is a teaspoon, you are not going to be able to use bailing to stop the ocean tide from coming in.

 

[Ed209]

No one will be able to do anything about the ocean tide by sitting on the sofa. However, if all you have is a teaspoon, you are not going to be able to use bailing to stop the ocean tide from coming in.

You have the kind of demeanour that would destroy the morale of even the happiest person. You are wired to be negative and to look for problems rather than solutions which I suppose isn't your fault. That's just your personality.

As Einstein once said:

 

[Bill Bauer]

You have the kind of demeanour that would destroy the morale of even the happiest person.

If I remember correctly, there was a study that asked the participants to estimate their chances of developing various diseases, getting into various accidents and dying over the next 1, 5, 10, and 20 years. The healthy people had significantly underestimated all of those probabilities. The people who were clinically depressed were the group that got the closest to a correct estimate of those probabilities. As I always say: A pessimist is an experienced optimist. You can ignore reality, but you won't be able to ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.

 

[Ed209]

If I remember correctly, there was a study that asked the participants to estimate their chances of developing various diseases, getting into various accidents and dying over the next 1, 5, 10, and 20 years. The healthy people had significantly underestimated all of those probabilities. The people who were clinically depressed were the group that got the closest to a correct estimate of those probabilities. As I always say: A pessimist is an experienced optimist. You can ignore reality, but you won't be able to ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.

Cool. Let's all do nothing then.

 

[Bill Bauer]

As Einstein once said:

He didn't say it.
https://www.quora.com/Did-Einstein-really-say-to-stay-away-from-negative-people

As far as I can tell, he did not.

The full quotation attributed to him is, "Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution."

In the one place this quote is attributed to a particular book of his, Full text of "Albert Einstein: The world as I see it", I looked it up, and it is definitely not in that book.

Also, if you do a Google search and limit the time to before 1999, the quote is almost nonexistent.

It's a fascinating quip, but it is not Einstein's.

There's also

Well, as a scientist dealing with fundamental issues you can't afford to only see bright sides. You need to be critical, you need a certain 'negativity' to account for loopholes in your reasoning. 'Positive' people are even dangerous in this context. In engineering (think water supply, your car, trains, nuclear plants) you want them to make sure they thought of everything that could go wrong, wouldn't you?

 

[Bill Bauer]

Cool. Let's all do nothing then.

Let's struggle to make it happen. But we should not forget to curb our enthusiasm.

 

[Agrajag364]

No, I want more people to suffer with this disease. That way we get a cure quicker.

Seriously??

 

[linearb]

90% of them will damage their hearing but not get any significant tinnitus, so...

I tend to tell teenagers they're being dumb when I see it, and describe my own tinnitus. Adults I mostly just let adult on their own, though I will say that a good number of my own close friends are a lot more protective of their hearing than they were before I told them all about my own issues.

If I remember correctly, there was a study that asked the participants to estimate their chances of developing various diseases, getting into various accidents and dying over the next 1, 5, 10, and 20 years. The healthy people had significantly underestimated all of those probabilities. The people who were clinically depressed were the group that got the closest to a correct estimate of those probabilities. As I always say: A pessimist is an experienced optimist. You can ignore reality, but you won't be able to ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.

Eh, so what? There are serious, unpleasant correlates to living with long-term depression. It's one thing to be "optimistic to a fault", as in not wearing earplugs to loud concerts, not driving with airbags/seatbelts, etc -- but it's quite another to ruminate on things past the point of useful anxiety.

People underestimate their mortality because mostly people would rather be happy in the moment than be fixated on the inevitability of illness and death. I think people who manage to live more in the moment are, generally, happier -- provided they don't let their general optimism lead to obvious dumb decisions.

Bottom line: something shitty and bad is going to happen to my health over the next 40 years, possibly much sooner. I take reasonable precautions to protect myself, but I don't think that becoming "pessimistic" does me any good. I approach life with a sort of cautious optimism which is certainly informed by the health issues I've had, the people I've watched die or worse, etc -- but having optimism tempered by objectivity is a very different thing than being pessimistic, let along "clinically depressed". No one really benefits from the latter.

Seriously??

Some people, when they have suffered past some point, lose the plot as far as empathy and rationality, and it's pretty sad to watch. On the other hand, often times people just need to vent, which is cool and good.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Cool. Let's all do nothing then.