Written for MDJ 20008 Fundamentals of Media Messages, Spring 2021
Gucci Spring 2021 RTW Analysis
I have no clue what you just said.
It’s something everyone in my life is used to hearing me say, and it’s not because they speak too quietly or I’m not paying attention to them, I legitimately didn’t hear what they said.
I’m an 18 year old who wears hearing aids, and while so much has changed over time, even in my lifetime, there is still no way for me to understand everything that is going on around me.
The biggest difference between my hearing and someone with normal hearing is what we hear, as my radius is determined by a machine rather than natural instinct. Something people often don’t realize is that most hearing aids block out background noise.
I do not get to decide what is determined background noise.
This is usually a good thing, as other people’s conversations are tuned out, or music in a store is less noticeable for me, but something that often comes up is people trying to talk to me while I am listening to someone or something else. I simply don’t hear them, sometimes I don’t even notice that they were speaking to me, but they see me ignoring them.
It isn’t my choice to ignore them, it was the hearing aid.
So usually I just ask them what they said, half the time the person just repeats themselves and doesn’t think twice about what happened, the other half the time, they think I’m just not interested in them and give me a “never mind.” It’s in those moments I have to remind people that I am interested in what they have to say, it was just the hearing aids.
Hearing aids and hearing loss are not major parts of youth culture, so those unaffected often forget. I’m glad to not be known as more than just someone with hearing aids, but sometimes it is a struggle constantly reminding people of it.
I promise I’m not ignoring you, it’s just my hearing aids defining you as background noise.
On Background Noise: https://www.healthyhearing.com/report/41066-Hearing-aids-background-noise