Why I Can’t Multitask With My Hearing Loss
Why I need my full concentration to listen
‘No time to read? Download the audible version!’ ‘Instead of reading a blog, listen to our podcast on the go!’
Podcasts and Audible books offer the promise of learning on the go. The idea is that you don’t have to interrupt your day to listen. You can continue your normal activities while listening to someone teach you how to make money, write a book, eat the right foods, etc. In our time-crunched, instant-access culture, it seems the perfect solution. We are all busy…far too busy to sit down and read to learn. Now we can learn through listening and we can do it anyplace…on our commute, while doing chores, while going for a walk. Efficiency is the name of the game.
It’s not so simple for me.
For those of us who have hearing loss, podcasts are either completely inaccessible or require concentration in order to understand what is being said. I read lips to help me understand what is being said. Without the ability to lipread, I miss much of what someone is saying. The amount of what I miss depends on the person’s voice. Some people are easier to understand than others. But I still need to concentrate to understand. If there are captions, that makes it much easier but then I need to be reading the captions….which is essentially the same thing as reading a…
