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A review by robthereader
Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World by David Owen
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.