I Have Had Some Trouble Hearing. Then I Tried These New Glasses - EssilorLuxottica.

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Earlier this year, my left ear, previously every bit as capable as my right, started letting me down. I at first had many explanations for this — a buildup of ear wax, some side effect of a sinus infection or a prolonged reaction to a lot of flying recently. It took a specialist to break it to me that I had joined the ranks of 1.25 billion people in the world who suffer from mild to moderate hearing loss.

Why it has happened is still unclear. To eliminate one possibility, the doctor gave me a prescription and told me to come back in two weeks. In the meantime, he suggested I try to avoid loud noises. As I emerged onto Park Avenue, that seemed like cruel joke. The only way to truly avoid noise in New York, clearly, is to go a bit deaf.

What would that mean for me, though? Already I had become a person who would subtly try to position myself in ways to maximize my ability to hear clearly, putting as many people to my right side as possible, sometimes requiring some rapid and frank assessments about who in a group might be the most interesting.

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“Think about a hearing aid,” the doctor said when I went in for my follow-up exam. I'm a 36-year-old technology journalist. This isn't the kind of wearable tech I typically consider. Hearing aids are expensive — sometimes a few thousand dollars per ear. And, more to the point, they're hearing aids. I decided I would find ways to manage without one for as long as was practical. Eventually, I've lied to myself, I'll hit some undefined age when a hearing aid will seem more appropriate.

Weeks later, I attended a lunch event promoting next year's CES, the enormous annual consumer electronics event held in Las Vegas. In a previous job, I had visited the