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ameyawarde's review against another edition
4.0
This book had tons of information about hearing, and some great history on the Deaf community @ Martha's Vineyard and some deaf schools... but also in other parts I think this book could have used a sensitivity reader because some accidentally ableist things were definitely said. But overall I did find the book interesting and I learned a bunch.. and am now kinda low key obsessed with protecting my ears.
mihrreader's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Well-researched, highly informative, and engagingly written. I've always been protective of my hearing but now I'm even more so, and I feel justified in having been "over the top" about loud noise in the past.
The book addresses hearing damage, hearing loss (congenital and acquired), hearing aids, hearing protection, cochlear implants, the history of Deafness (and the difference between deaf and Deaf), and the social impacts of deafness.
The book addresses hearing damage, hearing loss (congenital and acquired), hearing aids, hearing protection, cochlear implants, the history of Deafness (and the difference between deaf and Deaf), and the social impacts of deafness.
lgpiper's review against another edition
3.0
Yes, once in a while I do read non-fiction. In this case, it's all about hearing. The causes of hearing loss, some helps for hearing loss, the ways people cope, the medical research, and so forth. All things hearing. It's a fairly extensive coverage of the topic of hearing.
The one big problem, I think is that there are no damn pictures! So we get extensive attempts to tell us in words about the physiological structures that enable us to hear, and the ways people try to mitigate hearing loss, both by gadgets, like hearing aids (what I'm doing), and by surgical means, like cochlear implants.
Well, ya know? A couple of pictures would really, really have helped me better to envision what's going on. Yes, I can Google it all, but why read the book then? I'm a bit disappointed in it all. Hence, I took a half * off the score because of the lack of pictures.
The one big problem, I think is that there are no damn pictures! So we get extensive attempts to tell us in words about the physiological structures that enable us to hear, and the ways people try to mitigate hearing loss, both by gadgets, like hearing aids (what I'm doing), and by surgical means, like cochlear implants.
Well, ya know? A couple of pictures would really, really have helped me better to envision what's going on. Yes, I can Google it all, but why read the book then? I'm a bit disappointed in it all. Hence, I took a half * off the score because of the lack of pictures.
robthereader's review against another edition
3.0
The sense of hearing has recently become a subject of interest to me. We bombard ourselves with a cacophony of noise everyday, especially now with our generation that has its AirPods plugged inti our head more often than not while at work or working out. To make sense of where my and our generation’s hearing was headed, I picked up this book.
David Owen puts his research and own hearing disability to bear by walking the reader through the anatomy of the ear, the discovery and reasons for hearing’s failure and the past, present and future of hearing disability accommodation and possible treatments.
Overall, his science lands well to the novice audiologist. He explains sound as vibrations that are corralled by the outer hear before the three inner hear bones transfer the energy to mechanical energy for the cochlea then relayed to nerves to be interpreted by the brain. This explanation precedes an evolutionary biological explanation for how we developed our hearing.
The fragility of hearing is only a recent discovery as accounts are paraphrased how laborers, soldiers and common folk began to have their hearing investigated and tested. In this section, Owen makes an interesting note on how sight and blindness often attracts higher investment and attention than hearing.
Owen’s writing suffers when he goes into his own personal dealings with tinnitus. Its not really his facts but more own his humor just seems too dad-joke like. Regardless, he does not hold back on how the hearing aid business has become fraudulent and big business. He also muses over how our society could be more accepting of the deaf with education systems that taught ASL early rather than late in a death child’s life as early recognition and intervention stories are expose’d. Finally, he unravels how hearing loss can in fact be conductive from one singular loud event like a gunshot or loud concert. Remedies are being developed to not just assist the ear in capturing sound like a gearing aid does but rather improving the connection between the synapses in the brain.
All in all, Owen’s sources are reputable and arguments are valid. His reports on how our hearing is being further challenged and improved have provoked me to give greater consideration to ear plugs and to the deaf. Finally, his best observation comes from his comparison of sight and hearing. Sight is the sense where we connect with our environment but more importantly, hearing connects us with others and is what gives us our human connections.
David Owen puts his research and own hearing disability to bear by walking the reader through the anatomy of the ear, the discovery and reasons for hearing’s failure and the past, present and future of hearing disability accommodation and possible treatments.
Overall, his science lands well to the novice audiologist. He explains sound as vibrations that are corralled by the outer hear before the three inner hear bones transfer the energy to mechanical energy for the cochlea then relayed to nerves to be interpreted by the brain. This explanation precedes an evolutionary biological explanation for how we developed our hearing.
The fragility of hearing is only a recent discovery as accounts are paraphrased how laborers, soldiers and common folk began to have their hearing investigated and tested. In this section, Owen makes an interesting note on how sight and blindness often attracts higher investment and attention than hearing.
Owen’s writing suffers when he goes into his own personal dealings with tinnitus. Its not really his facts but more own his humor just seems too dad-joke like. Regardless, he does not hold back on how the hearing aid business has become fraudulent and big business. He also muses over how our society could be more accepting of the deaf with education systems that taught ASL early rather than late in a death child’s life as early recognition and intervention stories are expose’d. Finally, he unravels how hearing loss can in fact be conductive from one singular loud event like a gunshot or loud concert. Remedies are being developed to not just assist the ear in capturing sound like a gearing aid does but rather improving the connection between the synapses in the brain.
All in all, Owen’s sources are reputable and arguments are valid. His reports on how our hearing is being further challenged and improved have provoked me to give greater consideration to ear plugs and to the deaf. Finally, his best observation comes from his comparison of sight and hearing. Sight is the sense where we connect with our environment but more importantly, hearing connects us with others and is what gives us our human connections.
miguelf's review against another edition
4.0
I’ve never been as paranoid with the volume settings as I was in listening to this audiobook. Volume Control is all about our hearing covering the science of how we hear to the history of how humans have tried (and mostly failed) to protect their hearing, to current cutting edge advancements in assisting deaf and hard of hearing treatments & technology. It’s consistently interesting and has a lot of tidbits related to the topic. The author is rightfully concerned about hearing protection around power tools – luckily I have always had my trusty earplugs and even ear muffs on top when operating a router. Now I just have to remember to turn down the volume on my ear buds listening to audiobooks and podcasts as well.
laurenkd89's review against another edition
4.0
We've all played the would-you-rather game, and I bet in all your time playing, you've included the age-old question, "Would you rather be deaf or blind?" Owen posits this same question in the introduction to Volume Control, saying that when he was a kid, he and almost everyone else he knew chose "deaf" without a doubt - without having the experience of either disability, being deaf seems way easier than being blind. You can still see the world, you can read lips or learn ASL, etc. But now, after studying hearing loss and deafness in detail for years and experiencing hearing loss himself, Owen wholeheartedly chooses blindness over deafness. Sound, and by extension, language, is what connects us to the experience of being human: laughter, crying, music, audible communication, and even hearing for basic survival are essential components of our daily lives. As Helen Keller noted, "Blindness separates people from things; deafness separates people from people."
However, hearing loss is becoming more and more common. Our maddeningly complex and tiny hearing systems have not evolved to match the level of noise in our post-Industrial Revolution world: the loudest noises pre-Industrial humans were used to hearing were waterfalls and thunder, but we now experience noises that loud on a daily basis (think: music in headphones, leaf blowers, subway cars). More than any other sense we have, hearing is extremely fragile - there is absolutely no surgery, medicine, or device that can correct or restore hearing once impaired, particularly if that impairment is caused by one loud noise (e.g. a shotgun blast close to your head) or constant exposure to loud noises (e.g. working in a factory or a loud restaurant).
Owen presents an overview of modern hearing problems, focusing more on the all-too-common problem of hearing loss rather than just deafness. I can't overstate how important this book is - I bet you know someone with hearing loss or maybe have experienced it yourself in the form of tinnitus, old age, or overexposure to noises. My dad has fairly severe hearing loss and the level of isolation and miscommunication he's felt in the past few years is astounding. He's tried two expensive hearing aids, Bose HearPhones (which work very well), and will be getting a cochlear implant in a few months. But for a family man and a music lover, nothing has really worked to restore hearing to his life as it was before, and nothing likely will. Owen's book helps me both understand his struggles better, gives me tips for improving communication with him, and presents me with options for what to do about his hearing.
He notes that there is no better time to be deaf than the present, as the capabilities of technology and medical treatments are improving constantly. However, our society places an undue stigma on deafness and hearing loss, and refuses to reckon with the issue in the dignified way it deserves, acknowledging that hearing, once lost, is almost impossible to regain. Particularly moving to me was the story about Chilmark, a community on Martha's Vineyard, that had a very large population of deaf people in the nineteenth century due to a common genetic mutation. The community was isolated from the rest of the U.S. at this time, and didn't even know that deafness was an uncommon issue. They went on with daily life as if nothing was abnormal - everyone on the island knew how to sign, and communication was smooth and seamless between hearing and non-hearing people. Owen notes that if we all knew how to sign, we wouldn't have to grapple with expensive and barely effective technologies to improve hearing, we wouldn't have to shout to people with hearing issues, we wouldn't have to rely on "huh??" in every other sentence. In our increasingly loud world, maybe that method of volume control is actually the simplest.
However, hearing loss is becoming more and more common. Our maddeningly complex and tiny hearing systems have not evolved to match the level of noise in our post-Industrial Revolution world: the loudest noises pre-Industrial humans were used to hearing were waterfalls and thunder, but we now experience noises that loud on a daily basis (think: music in headphones, leaf blowers, subway cars). More than any other sense we have, hearing is extremely fragile - there is absolutely no surgery, medicine, or device that can correct or restore hearing once impaired, particularly if that impairment is caused by one loud noise (e.g. a shotgun blast close to your head) or constant exposure to loud noises (e.g. working in a factory or a loud restaurant).
Owen presents an overview of modern hearing problems, focusing more on the all-too-common problem of hearing loss rather than just deafness. I can't overstate how important this book is - I bet you know someone with hearing loss or maybe have experienced it yourself in the form of tinnitus, old age, or overexposure to noises. My dad has fairly severe hearing loss and the level of isolation and miscommunication he's felt in the past few years is astounding. He's tried two expensive hearing aids, Bose HearPhones (which work very well), and will be getting a cochlear implant in a few months. But for a family man and a music lover, nothing has really worked to restore hearing to his life as it was before, and nothing likely will. Owen's book helps me both understand his struggles better, gives me tips for improving communication with him, and presents me with options for what to do about his hearing.
He notes that there is no better time to be deaf than the present, as the capabilities of technology and medical treatments are improving constantly. However, our society places an undue stigma on deafness and hearing loss, and refuses to reckon with the issue in the dignified way it deserves, acknowledging that hearing, once lost, is almost impossible to regain. Particularly moving to me was the story about Chilmark, a community on Martha's Vineyard, that had a very large population of deaf people in the nineteenth century due to a common genetic mutation. The community was isolated from the rest of the U.S. at this time, and didn't even know that deafness was an uncommon issue. They went on with daily life as if nothing was abnormal - everyone on the island knew how to sign, and communication was smooth and seamless between hearing and non-hearing people. Owen notes that if we all knew how to sign, we wouldn't have to grapple with expensive and barely effective technologies to improve hearing, we wouldn't have to shout to people with hearing issues, we wouldn't have to rely on "huh??" in every other sentence. In our increasingly loud world, maybe that method of volume control is actually the simplest.