Are noise-cancelling headphones impairing our hearing?
Some specialists suspect that constantly filtering out background noise may have unintended consequences.
Auditory processing disorder (APD) is often diagnosed in children but less so in adults.
🧪👂🏼🎧
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/feb/22/filter-trouble-why-audiologists-worry-noise-cancelling-headphones-may-impair-hearing-skills?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Some specialists suspect that constantly filtering out background noise may have unintended consequences.
Auditory processing disorder (APD) is often diagnosed in children but less so in adults.
🧪👂🏼🎧
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/feb/22/filter-trouble-why-audiologists-worry-noise-cancelling-headphones-may-impair-hearing-skills?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Comments
It’s only recently that APD’s gone from being widely viewed as a personality fault to a diagnosable and treatable problem.
Just neurodiverse things. 😂
https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/medical-information-0/auditory-processing-disorder/
Tbh, it blows my mind why people go to those places to try to talk to each other, you couldn't design social environments any worse.
V E G A N
🕉️ Endocannabinoid System 🕉️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJj6Xojf4e0
A "shift in tone" isn't a nonverbal cue, it's a verbal one.
I doubt headphones are "causing" APD. Adults are less diagnosed because we don't realize APD is a thing.
Anything that raises awareness and discussion of hearing problems in adults is a positive, though.