I have been observing and picking up in discussions that there is a nice rhythm that has set in for people who are WFH. Confined in a room, with earphones/ earbuds/ headphones, oblivious to the other things at home, and rightly so. It is now an office after all. Not only online meetings and discussions but even one on one phone calls are done using these earphones. And before one knows it, it is the end of the day, the laptop is switched off but the earphones are now switching to entertainment mode. This is slowly yet steadily becoming an accessory and if left unchecked, will morph into a necessity. There are implications and side effects to this which we may or may not be fully aware of. Some of us may continue to WFH for some more weeks, the others who are now WFO will still need to connect over calls or online with colleagues who are WFH. So this post applies to all of us.
In the lock down times, our ears have been the most stressed. The joke being, Are these my ears or hangers? Specs frames, mask band, ear plugs all sit around our ears. But the most important thing I want to touch upon is the damage being caused internally to the ears. Thanks to group calls, discussions and work being assigned online, everyone is plugged into their earphones for these calls that extends through the day. Noise levels of discussions online, surround noise levels, one’s own voice volume getting higher to speak over all of this is a huge stress on one’s hearing. When the day’s work is done, unwinding by watching content on the phone again with earphones has added to the stress. If ears had a voice, they would be screaming for help.
Small changes that we can do to help ourselves: It might be useful to have online discussions without using earphones and limit the noise levels in the online meets by muting the non-speakers. Take a break every 40 minutes and take a short walk even if it is only within the room that you are working from. For entertainment, avoid the earphones. Rest your ears at the end of the day by soaking in silence for a while. Reduce the volume in which you and your family converse in. Build focus to pick up conversations in low tones. Play music softly and listen without earbuds/ headphones. Experts advise the 60-60 rule, which is keep the volume at max 60% and do not listen through ear phones/ head phones/ ear buds for more than 60 minutes in a day (includes night!)
All of us are going through this similar phase. It is time to take care. Our ears do not complain easily. Unlike our eyes, teeth, gums, nose, stomach, lungs, throat; ears are relatively less attention seeking. But that does not mean they do not get affected. They just get silent, slowly, steadily. A couple of days back, a friend shared a hearing test on our WhatsApp group. I am sharing it here. It is interesting to find out how good we have been with our ears so far and also it could become the wake up call to respect our ears more than we currently do. Here’s to ears!
