Do We Need to Wear Noise-Canceling Headphones and Earbuds This Much? | Hacker News Reader

Do We Need to Wear Noise-Canceling Headphones and Earbuds This Much?

wsj.com

3 pointsgnicholas6 comments

The noise cancelling allows me to get drown out background noise with my music at a lower volume. I’d guess the relative volume is the same.

But I’ve been working mostly without headphones since wfh.

This is why I moved to AirPods Pro from the regular ones. When I go walking I end up turning up the volume like crazy so that I can hear over the sound of traffic. With the Pro, I can keep the volume much lower (and I only wear in one ear, so I can still hear traffic noises). Strangely, or you want to be able to use ANC when only one AirPod is in use, you have to go into the accessibility settings to enable this functionality. Otherwise it kills ANC when you pull out one AirPod.

I started wearing ear plugs on airplanes, then putting them in as soon as I got to the airport and not removing them until I was out of the next airport. It definitely made a positive difference in travel. Now I wear earbuds a lot, even if I am not listening to anything. Can't say it is helping my hearing or not, but like the airports, less sound is more peaceful.

> Relying on technology to silence the world’s background noises can make it harder for the brain to filter them out on its own, neurologists and behavioral scientists say. People who regularly wear noise-canceling headphones might be more easily distracted by sounds of typing and chatter on days they’re not wearing buds.

Has anyone experienced this?

Somewhat. It's a novelty factor response. If you're not used to hearing background noise then every little thing sort of 'pops'. Individual key clicks sound more distinct, you pay more attention to the sound of footsteps etc.

It's just your brain being unaccustomed to the sounds and reintroducing them.

Could it be similar to the return to office effect some people are noticing. After a year or more of working from home quietly, many who return to a noisy office are struggling to focus and are wondering how they ever got work done in the past!

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