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August 9, 2016#Hearinglosshour: Hobbies, Activities and Hearing Loss
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#hearinglosshour is an hour a month dedicated to a live chat about living with hearing loss. It takes place between 1pm and 2pm(GMT) on Twitter on the first Wednesday of every month.
Following my sudden deafness in 2011, I felt quite isolated from my regular circle of friends. However, I found so much help and support via Twitter that I had the idea of setting up #hearinglosshour as a virtual hangout where people with hearing loss could get together and chat in real time.
Each month, we have a different topic and this month’s topic was ‘hobbies, activities and hearing loss.’ During the live chat, people were asked the following questions:
Q1. Have your hobbies changed as a result of your hearing loss? If they have, what have you stopped doing and what new hobbies have you discovered?
Q2. How does your hearing ability impact on your enjoyment of your hobbies?
Q3. In what way does your hearing loss – or your hearing aids/CI make a difference to your enjoyment of your favourite hobby?
Q4. What hobbies or activities would you recommend to someone new to hearing loss?
Despite the obvious difficulties many of us have faced since experiencing hearing loss, the conversation was mostly very upbeat and positive with people sharing their thoughts, humour and tips in a spirit of openness and generosity.
@Keith_Delk said he was thinking of taking up Parkour. I’d never heard of the term ‘Parkour’ before so I quickly Googled it. The best ‘definition’ that popped up was this:
Others had more sedate pastimes such as reading, gardening and bird-watching, and a few others talked about listening to or playing music and how that had changed since experiencing hearing loss.
There was also a discussion on the pros and cons of baking with hearing loss. On the upside, @DeafGirly suggested that ‘deafness is great, as it cuts distractions’ but we all agreed with her that it was not so good when we miss the oven timer and burn the cakes! But, as always, there were some great suggestions as to how to avoid such mishaps – setting a portable vibrating alarm or having an egg timer in your pocket, setting your phone alarm to vibrate – or, most expensive of all, buying an Apple watch.
One participant shared that her Grandma used to enjoy playing the piano so she could ‘hear’ the vibrations, which led to @GlosDeaf sharing this link:
One thing’s for sure, our lives as deafies are certainly not dull! Our hobbies are as varied as we are – and it’s great to learn what others enjoy doing.
Here’s a summary of all the tweets:
The next #hearinglosshour takes place at 1pm-2pm (GMT), Wednesday, September 7, 2016 on Twitter. Join along live, here.
Author Details
Phonak hEARo, Angie is a freelance journalist and content writer. Angie was diagnosed with Otosclerosis in her right ear at the age of 30. In 2011, she suffered sudden profound hearing loss in her left ear. She uses a Phonak CROS II with a Phonak Audéo V hearing aid. You can follow Angie on Twitter @hearinglosshour and join in #HearingLossHour on the first Tuesday of the month.
