Say That Again!?

Story on progressive hearing loss with age.

        Getting older is a bitch.  Maturation is entropic, believe me.  And one of the most frustration things about getting older is progressive hearing loss.  Hearing loss happens to all of us.  All those rock concerts and more recently, the iPod have contributed to a gradual decline in your ability to hear.  Ladies, you’ll be happy to know that men suffer more rapid hearing loss than women.   

    Furthermore, the greatest loss happens in the high frequencies.  Normal range of hearing for a young person is around 20 – 20,000 Hz.  Human speech is normally falls within the 100 – 5,000 Hz range.

    Here’s a web site where you can test your hearing threshold.  I have to tell you that when I first tried it, my kids were in the room.  I activated the 18,000Hz signal and couldn’t hear a thing, so I hit the button again…and again.  Phil, who’s 18, pleaded for me to stop.  He said the sound was killing him.  I couldn’t believe him at first but it soon became evident that he wasn’t kidding.  I discovered to my great disappointment that the upper end of my hearing is now about 13,000Hz. Josée’s is the same.  I’m 53.  Josée’s not 50 yet.

    The whole thing stinks.  I remember when I was much younger and my parents would take me to one of the large jewelers in downtown Montreal, I just could not enter because the high frequency alarm tone would hurt my ears while my parents couldn’t hear a thing.  Alas, I no longer have that problem, something for which my wife is very thankful.
Joseph Froncioni

Comments

[David]

Please write larger and in a lower frequency. I'm only good for 12000Hz. My kids are running from the house at over 20000Hz.

[Josée]

Hi,

I like the not 50 yet!