As the workday winds down on Friday, and notions of the impending weekend are flooding the mind, individuals are certainly wondering how to spend their free time. Whether it be seeing a movie in theatres, going out to a revered restaurant with the family, or opting to check out the local dance club, these contemplations are natural and a way of alleviating a stressful week. The ritualistic Friday night out on the town is a highly anticipated, albeit strategically planned event for those whose schedules allow them to enjoy the weekend. It is almost without a doubt that the average twenty-something expects healthy doses of loud music coming from either the amplifiers of some unknown band at the local bar, the state-of-the-art sound system at a well-known nightclub, or the home stereo at a friend’s gathering. Or, perhaps others are venturing out to noisy restaurants and theatrical musings. And if the music isn’t loud, or reiterating your pasta entrée to your waiter over the noisy discourse of your fellow patrons isn’t irksome, or attending a debut show with amplifiers galore isn’t a red flag, then the evening may not live up to its expectations.

The subsequent morning is the harbinger of inevitable consequences of Friday evening’s actions and that ringing in your ear is very seldom the alarm clock. It’s usually a reminder that all the loud noise from the night before is catching up to you and negatively affecting your hearing. Its interesting; the big city young and restless know to protect their belongings for fear of pickpockets and to protect themselves from those who may be too forward in their advances, but it is rare for them to protect their hearing. The music at your average nightclub yields 110dB of sound, that which after only 30 minutes a day of exposure can cause irreparable and permanent damage to your ears and does in fact contribute greatly to hearing loss. Save for a few health savvy individuals who bring ear plugs to concerts, nightclubs, and restaurants, there is a small percentage of people who protect their ears from the ill effects of noise pollution and they may one day suffer the consequences. So, what exactly happens when your hearing is damaged? How does hearing loss develop? These are questions one may quickly overlook asking, especially in early adulthood when evident signs of hearing loss is less prevalent.

There are different types of hearing impairments, some noised induced and others simply inherited at birth, for example. These types include conductive, sensorineural, central, functional, and mixed hearing loss. Conductive hearing loss is attributed to some sort of interference in the outer and middle ear, interrupting the sound and preventing it from reaching the inner ear. In most cases, conductive hearing loss is successfully treated, and patients greatly benefit from hearing aids being that simple amplification of sound is all that is needed to mitigate the problem. Central hearing loss is a result of damage to the central nervous system and is classified as a learning disability. People who suffer from this kind of hearing impairment actually suffer from central auditory processing disorder which hinders the ability to process more than one task at a time where one requires hearing. Some of these people believe that their hearing loss is affecting their productivity when in fact they have normal hearing, yet cannot filter out more than one auditory signal. Functional hearing loss occurs when psychological or emotional trauma makes an individual ignore sounds, leading others to believe he or she cannot actually hear. This kind of hearing impairment is oftentimes improperly diagnosed. Mixed hearing loss is obviously a combination of any kind of hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss, also referred to as “nerve deafness” or “retrocochlear hearing loss,” is a form of hearing loss due to complications in the inner ear or the vestibulocochlear (acoustic) nerve or both. This kind of hearing loss is much more complicated than conductive hearing loss because of the elements involved. The acoustic nerve, located in the internal acoustic canal, is one of 12 cranial nerves, or nerves responsible for carrying information to the brain. This nerve in particular is actually a pair of two large nerves that consist of the cochlear nerve, which is responsible for sensing sound, and the vestibular nerve, which senses equilibrium (essential for movement). Within the inner ear we find the cochlea, which is responsible for receiving and transmitting sounds, via the cochlear nerve, to the brain. The cochlea is the spiral-shaped, fluid-filled organ in the inner ear, in which is located the “organ of Corti,” which is home to 15,000-20,000 auditory nerve receptors, each with its own hair cell that is exactly what accepts and interprets sound. Damage to these hair cells by way of trauma from extremely high levels of sound is a main cause of sensorineural hearing loss, which is the most common form. Restoring sensorineural hearing loss is still among the works of science fiction, yet contemporary medicine is still painstakingly searching for a way to reverse it.

Evidently, hearing loss is no laughing matter. Those who are frequently in environments that expose people to exceedingly high levels of sound should protect themselves with earplugs. There are many people, including famous musicians, who for the love of loud music decided not to heed these warnings and are now living in a tinnitus-infected world of continuous and incessant in-ear ringing, or have no hearing at all. One such musician is Pete Townshend, guitarist and songwriter for The Who. On May 31, 1976 at Charlton Athletic Football Ground in London, England, The Who gave a performance that is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the loudest concert of all time, yielding 126dB 32 meters from the stage. That is about as loud as an air raid siren or a military jet about 105ft away from the esteemed rock band. This and another incident while giving a live performance of “My Generation” during the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour when Who drummer Keith Moon set off explosives in his drum set near Townshend may have single-handedly contributed to his tinnitus. Pete Townshend gave the initial funding for H.E.A.R., or Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers, which is a non-profit organization promoting the education of rock musicians against hearing abuse.

The fact of the matter lies in that every individual should care for his or her hearing, as much as they do the rest of their body. Notwithstanding, with a service called Phone Caption, no longer should the deaf and hard of hearing feel victimized in a world where the ability to hear is often abused by the hearing and heavily susceptible to long term damage. Those with sensorineural hearing loss (nerve-related deafness) or central hearing loss (deafness caused by damage to the central nervous system), many of which suffer these types of hearing loss due to pre-natal complications or age-related hearing decline, now have a way to keep in contact with their hearing counterparts on the phone: and receiving free captions simultaneously. Those for whom a phone is the only way to reach family and friends despite some form of hearing loss, Phone Caption’s innovative service permits them to do so without frustrations and with text captions as they speak to their hearing counterparts. Phone Caption is funded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and is free and available for all those living in the United States. You are provided with a free 800 number upon registering with Free Captioning, and more importantly, you are provided with an opportunity to communicate efficiently.