5 ms·

Being deaf is: constant baseline soundmaking anxiety

96 points by blackhole 12y ago

robgibbons 12y ago
Very, very interesting. This gave me some useful perspective, also the post about the Basketball player (interrupt-driven).
jmillikin 12y ago
Related: "Dorm of the Deaf" http://dustinland.com/archives/archives319.html http://dustinland.com/archives/archives319.html > When the world around you doesn’t give you feedback, > and the best gauge you have of your own noise level is > frustration on the faces of the people near you People laugh at HN suggesting technical solutions to every problem, but this really does seem like something that could be solved (or at least mitigated) by a microphone, some small LEDs, and a gutted wristwatch. Light up more LEDs depending on how loud the sound is relative to the average level of the previous N seconds of recorded audio. A web search for [wrist sound sensor] didn't find anything relevant, but this is probably because I don't know what such a device would be named. edit: Following the trackback at the bottom reveals the author is a hardware hacker. I wonder if she has tried to build such a device -- if not, maybe it's much more complicated than it seems.
- baddox 12y ago
  A similar tool, though not designed for exactly that purpose, is a sound level meter or a loudness meter. There are small handheld ones, but I don't know of any that could be worn on a wrist or that have a useful UI for a deaf person.
- gst 12y ago
  A LED would require to look at the device in order to notice the sound. An alternative might be haptic feedback as available in the Apple Watch.
  - joshu 12y ago
    My thought as well.
- Sven7 12y ago
  check out flutter - http://correll.cs.colorado.edu/?page_id=2353 http://correll.cs.colorado.edu/?page_id=2353
veb 12y ago
This article hits home for me. I was born with a severe hearing loss, and I have recently got a Med-EL Opus2 / RONDO Cochlear Implant -- which changed my life for the better. How? It reduced so much stress, I was surprised that I was carrying so much. It was simply things like going to the toilet (you think, "am I going to make a really awful rude noise that everyone will hate me for?") or drinking your coffee ("is this awful?!")... even typing at work, or taking to a colleague and hoping that I wasn't interrupting someone else. Then I realised: everyone else is simply bloody loud, they generally don't care about how loud they are when they're eating, shutting doors or chatting to someone. They don't. Only I did, I was the only one who constantly worried. It wasn't the fact that I could suddenly hear things, which I could, it was realising that I was overthinking, overanalysing every situation with that sound was involved. That included _breathing_. I would literally slow my breathing if someone were to sit next to me on a bus. Severe anxiety due to sound. I'm still very anxious if I am to watch a movie, in my own house, by myself... in fear I'd wake the neighbours on an adjourned property. (to put this in perspective, my wife came home and she couldn't even hear the movie in the next bedroom.) THIS was seriously the hardest thong I've had to face but it's been worth it for the reduced stress and anxiety. Thanks for posting this!
- grownseed 12y ago
  I'm thankful for your comment and the original's author article, it helped me realize I'm not (utterly) mad. Even though I haven't been completely deaf in a fairly long time (some form of congenital defect, sorta fixed, on and off, will get worse again), I still have a very hard time judging loudness. The way I do most things - even mindlessly simple like walking, grabbing a pen on a table or eating - I minimize sound as much as possible, like not/barely touching the floor with my heels. I know it's kind of ridiculous to most people, but I'm also not sure the same people quite realize how continuously stressful it is to have little to no feedback from a sense you should normally be able to rely on. These behaviors have become second nature for the most part, but I still feel like I'm letting down everybody when I do make noise, on the few occasions where I'm not mindful of my actions. As a bit of an aside, I find it interesting that the loss of a sense generally seems to bring about a completely different level of introspection and self-awareness, not better or worse, just profoundly different (or I'm completely biased).
afarrell 12y ago
This sounds similar to the sort of social anxiety I've felt around trying to figure out how to avoid creeping people out.
shard 12y ago
I remember reading this article about a person who had no sense of smell, and how they had to always make sure that they have no BO, have to worry about not being able to smell gas or rotten food, and various other things that the rest of us didn't have to struggle with. It's these subtle things that makes the lack of a sense more challenging than one would expect from the common perception of these disabilities.
tempestn 12y ago
Great post. I had never considered that aspect of deafness, but it's so obvious in retrospect. Thanks.
- hereonbusiness 12y ago
  I agree, just reading the title already gave me that feeling as if a little puzzle piece had just settled into my Weltanschauung. > I type loudly during quiet thinking breaks in class, constantly rustle books and papers in the chapel, and make munchy-slurp noises when I eat with gusto. Until my twenties, I didn’t know those things made noises. It's a constant thing isn't it, adjusting your own loudness depending on the environment you're currently in, it happens almost unconsciously. Having the need to pay attention to this all the time with the only way of getting feedback being reading other people's reactions or explicitly being told would probably make me anxious too. This also makes me think about how essential feedback loops are for efficient learning, both in humans and machines.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
stsp 12y ago
My dad has very bad hearing, and can be quite noisy sometimes to the point of being annoying. I remember complaining to him about this occasionally. I never considered he might be worried about annoying others, and may be trying to hide his anxiety on top of that. I'll have to ask him. Thanks Mel.
eknkc 12y ago
Smart watches can be valuable for things like this I guess. Something like having an app on iPhone monitoring the mic, showing a gauge or vibrating at a threshold on the Apple Watch (might be easier on Android). Would be useful feedback. Are there any apps / devices for such purposes on the market?

96 points by blackhole 12y ago

Very, very interesting. This gave me some useful perspective, also the post about the Basketball player (interrupt-driven).

jmillikin 12y ago

Related: "Dorm of the Deaf" http://dustinland.com/archives/archives319.html http://dustinland.com/archives/archives319.html > When the world around you doesn’t give you feedback, > and the best gauge you have of your own noise level is > frustration on the faces of the people near you People laugh at HN suggesting technical solutions to every problem, but this really does seem like something that could be solved (or at least mitigated) by a microphone, some small LEDs, and a gutted wristwatch. Light up more LEDs depending on how loud the sound is relative to the average level of the previous N seconds of recorded audio. A web search for [wrist sound sensor] didn't find anything relevant, but this is probably because I don't know what such a device would be named. edit: Following the trackback at the bottom reveals the author is a hardware hacker. I wonder if she has tried to build such a device -- if not, maybe it's much more complicated than it seems.

baddox 12y ago
A similar tool, though not designed for exactly that purpose, is a sound level meter or a loudness meter. There are small handheld ones, but I don't know of any that could be worn on a wrist or that have a useful UI for a deaf person.
gst 12y ago
A LED would require to look at the device in order to notice the sound. An alternative might be haptic feedback as available in the Apple Watch.
- joshu 12y ago
  My thought as well.
Sven7 12y ago
check out flutter - http://correll.cs.colorado.edu/?page_id=2353 http://correll.cs.colorado.edu/?page_id=2353

veb 12y ago

This article hits home for me. I was born with a severe hearing loss, and I have recently got a Med-EL Opus2 / RONDO Cochlear Implant -- which changed my life for the better. How? It reduced so much stress, I was surprised that I was carrying so much. It was simply things like going to the toilet (you think, "am I going to make a really awful rude noise that everyone will hate me for?") or drinking your coffee ("is this awful?!")... even typing at work, or taking to a colleague and hoping that I wasn't interrupting someone else. Then I realised: everyone else is simply bloody loud, they generally don't care about how loud they are when they're eating, shutting doors or chatting to someone. They don't. Only I did, I was the only one who constantly worried. It wasn't the fact that I could suddenly hear things, which I could, it was realising that I was overthinking, overanalysing every situation with that sound was involved. That included _breathing_. I would literally slow my breathing if someone were to sit next to me on a bus. Severe anxiety due to sound. I'm still very anxious if I am to watch a movie, in my own house, by myself... in fear I'd wake the neighbours on an adjourned property. (to put this in perspective, my wife came home and she couldn't even hear the movie in the next bedroom.) THIS was seriously the hardest thong I've had to face but it's been worth it for the reduced stress and anxiety. Thanks for posting this!

grownseed 12y ago
I'm thankful for your comment and the original's author article, it helped me realize I'm not (utterly) mad. Even though I haven't been completely deaf in a fairly long time (some form of congenital defect, sorta fixed, on and off, will get worse again), I still have a very hard time judging loudness. The way I do most things - even mindlessly simple like walking, grabbing a pen on a table or eating - I minimize sound as much as possible, like not/barely touching the floor with my heels. I know it's kind of ridiculous to most people, but I'm also not sure the same people quite realize how continuously stressful it is to have little to no feedback from a sense you should normally be able to rely on. These behaviors have become second nature for the most part, but I still feel like I'm letting down everybody when I do make noise, on the few occasions where I'm not mindful of my actions. As a bit of an aside, I find it interesting that the loss of a sense generally seems to bring about a completely different level of introspection and self-awareness, not better or worse, just profoundly different (or I'm completely biased).

afarrell 12y ago

This sounds similar to the sort of social anxiety I've felt around trying to figure out how to avoid creeping people out.

shard 12y ago

I remember reading this article about a person who had no sense of smell, and how they had to always make sure that they have no BO, have to worry about not being able to smell gas or rotten food, and various other things that the rest of us didn't have to struggle with. It's these subtle things that makes the lack of a sense more challenging than one would expect from the common perception of these disabilities.

tempestn 12y ago

Great post. I had never considered that aspect of deafness, but it's so obvious in retrospect. Thanks.

hereonbusiness 12y ago
I agree, just reading the title already gave me that feeling as if a little puzzle piece had just settled into my Weltanschauung. > I type loudly during quiet thinking breaks in class, constantly rustle books and papers in the chapel, and make munchy-slurp noises when I eat with gusto. Until my twenties, I didn’t know those things made noises. It's a constant thing isn't it, adjusting your own loudness depending on the environment you're currently in, it happens almost unconsciously. Having the need to pay attention to this all the time with the only way of getting feedback being reading other people's reactions or explicitly being told would probably make me anxious too. This also makes me think about how essential feedback loops are for efficient learning, both in humans and machines.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

stsp 12y ago

My dad has very bad hearing, and can be quite noisy sometimes to the point of being annoying. I remember complaining to him about this occasionally. I never considered he might be worried about annoying others, and may be trying to hide his anxiety on top of that. I'll have to ask him. Thanks Mel.

eknkc 12y ago

Smart watches can be valuable for things like this I guess. Something like having an app on iPhone monitoring the mic, showing a gauge or vibrating at a threshold on the Apple Watch (might be easier on Android). Would be useful feedback. Are there any apps / devices for such purposes on the market?