In the Neanderthal thread, Snake brought up a point worth a thread of it's own, hearing, & the media.

I don't know what causes Snake's problem, but I have tinnitus. It is only since it developed that I have found just how many 50+ people have it. Unfortunately, too many media people are too young to know. If they did, they would not alienate such a large portion of their potential audience.

Fortunately, most of us are not driven to distraction, by the noise in our herd. Our problem is that we are unable to differentiate sounds, particularly if more than 2 sources are involved.

For example, last night I had my son, daughter, & her cat visiting. I was trying to watch, [listen to], Breaking the Mould, on the ABC. At one point, my son was talking on his mobile, my daughter was scolding her cat, & a character was talking on the TV. I could not decipher any one of these sounds. To me it was all just noise.

As a young navy pilot, I was able to read one strand of morse code from a mixture of 5 or 6, comming in simultaneously. I did not find this difficult. Today it's impossible.

A surprising number of people have the same problem. If an older relative or friend is no longer participating in general conversations, this is probably the reason. I & a number of my friends have been chided for "not being interested" at gatherings, when we just don't know what any one is saying.

Then we come to the media. Too many of these people are too young to know about tinnitus. They stick in all this music [music?], & noises, & expect us to be able to hear the commentary through all that lot. It sure can't help their ratings.

Just why they believe that neanderthals, or dinosaurs for that matter, can not wander down a paddock without much roaring, grunting, screeching & groaning, etc, I can't imagine. Horses, & cattle, even elephants in the Serengeti can, so why all this false atmosphere.

It is interesting that you have enlarged on my original post. Even in my younger years, there was none of this computer generated background noise, just some "mood music" which I still don't object to.
However, in common with everything nowadays the accent is on grabbing attention and exaggeration seems to be the trend, even in speech where superlatives reign supreme and everything is always "fantastic". We live in a "young" world unfortunately, but us Old Farts may have our day soon as we demand more attention with our increased numbers !

I recommend a movie called "No Country for old men" a thriller which has no background noise at all and no music, yet it has more suspense because of the lack of it.

Ah well Hasbeen, I have a 8Khz tinnitus also, but I forget about it,
unless someone like you mentions it.
My pet peeve is when a TV station or radio play a recording of a pollie
or someone speaking in a foreign language and at the same time play
the translation at the same level. The BBC does this all the time.
It seems just stupid to me.

I can copy one station on morse and hear another call me but I have
trouble copying his callsign at the same time.
Still, I have a friend who was a brass ponder at the PMGs Dept and he
could copy two lines, type one telegram and remember the other and
hold a conversation with me at the same time.

It was a marvel to behold !
And the kids think they are good with their texting !
I think as we get older the multiplexing circuits in our heads seem
to drop out of action and so we start to have problems in catching
what is being said in a muti strand conversation like large family
gatherings.

It will be interesting to see how the present generation behaves when they get older and their hearing deteriorates as a consequence of loud music in ipods and car sterios etc, not to mention live bands where the decibels are excruciating. Industry requires ear muffs for much lesser noise.

Yes Bazz, I'm lucky, like you, & normally am unaware fo my tinnitus. It only becomes apparent in group settings, or when listening to these poorly constructed media productions, as Snake finds.

I started the thread only in the hope it may inform some of these media people, who would fix the problem I'm sure, if they were made aware of it.

It would be a pity if they only find there is a problem, after they develop it personally. It appears that media schools have not yet found it worth teaching their pupils about it.

Hasbeen,
Put up the captions on your TV.
Alternatively shoot the cat, gag your daughter in law and break your son's mobile.

Or simply roar "shut up!"

the latter two work for me :-)

No need to thank me, just send money...lots. ;-)