How can bare feet be so noisy: reflections on being new to hearing aids

How can bare feet on laminate flooring be so noisy ? How can the sound of eating crisps dominate every other sense? Do I need to think carefully about whether I should scratch my head if I want to hear what's going on around me? All these questions, and many more, have been forced onto me since I first started wearing hearing aids about four months ago.

I am most comfortable writing about some aspect of storytelling but, in this blog, I want to explore a significant life-change that many will be facing, like me, with increasing age: needing to wear hearing aids. To be sure, I had been nagged at home for quite some time about the need to get my hearing checked, but it was a programme on BBC Radio 4 that convinced me that I had to do something about my hearing.

‘Sliced Bread’ is a consumer podcast from the BBC, which examines the value of a range of products and services. In February 2025, it examined the different types of hearing aids that were accessible both privately and through the NHS. During the programme the contributors discussed the dangers of cognitive decline from not addressing hearing loss, and the resulting withdrawal from spoken language, both in conversation and in media. The programme can be found here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00282qp 

And so I took myself off to Boots to see an audiologist. The most interesting of the tests that she took me through was the one that measured my ability to hear conversation against background noise. Through headphones I could hear a woman talking, but the audiologist gradually increased the background noise as she checked with me how much I could understand. I had to admit to her that, even when I was accurate in my repetition of the speech, I was using inference from the context of the recording and my knowledge of English syntax to make informed guesses about what the woman was saying. 

The audiologist kindly informed me that my use of inference meant that there were no signs of cognitive decline at this point (which was a relief), but that my hearing loss meant that I was missing half the consonants when I listened to someone speaking. That was when I realised that for some time I'd been opting out of conversations, just smiling and nodding and not really paying attention, because I couldn't hear what people were saying properly; I was also losing interest in conversation between characters in TV and film because I just couldn't follow the dialogue. My response then, to not being able to hear clearly, was to withdraw socially even while giving the impression of being present. My grandfather was deaf, and my mother had to have hearing aids in her late 60s because of age-related hearing loss. I seem to have come to the party a bit early, that’s all.

Given the family history, I had an inkling that I might need hearing aids, and I had already looked at what was available before my appointment with the audiologist. The BBC programme discussed the different kinds of hearing aids: those available through the National Health Service (for which you don't have to pay) and those available privately. At the end of the program, the discussion turned to how the use of artificial intelligence in hearing aids would be ‘a game changer’.  They didn’t have access to AI enhanced hearing aids when the programme was made, but by June, when I had my hearing test, the first hearing aids powered by AI were available on the market. Looking at the claims made for these advanced hearing aids, I decided to go the AI route, gulping at the price. So, I went into my hearing check not knowing whether there was a problem (but suspecting there was) and left with £4000 worth of technology in my ears. 

£4,000 is a very large sum of money, even if the cost is spread over a couple of years, but I reasoned that this was about enhancing my life and ensuring that I could participate in the world around me. As an Englishman, talking about money does not come naturally to me, but I think that it’s important to be honest about the implications of this cost for who has access to this amazing technology. Whilst I would have much preferred not to invest that amount of money in hearing aids, I am in the fortunate position of being able to pay the cost. However, I remain very conscious of my own privileged position, when other people can’t afford to make the choice I have, and must make-do with more basic hearing aids.

So, what convinced me to go with AI enhanced hearing aids? While you can change the settings on normal hearing aids, the AI promised to detect the sound context and adjust accordingly. The publicity even stated that, if I was sitting at a table in a restaurant, the AI would amplify the voices of the people at my table without amplifying the sounds around me. Coincidentally, this was the first test of the new hearing aids.

The day after I was fitted for the hearing aids was also the opening day for a new cafe around the corner from our home. The community came out in force for the new cafe’s opening and we went round the corner and joined the celebration. We sat at a table of four, making conversation in a cafe full of lively families, all of whom were enjoying this new social space. During our time in the cafe, I didn't ask anyone at the table to repeat anything they said: that on its own was extraordinary.

I'm not going to say that everything has been plain sailing. There appear to be some acoustics that the hearing aids struggle to adapt to and I can hear it going through the various options as the quality of people's voices changes in my ears. I have also realised that if someone is walking next to me, I need to turn my head for the hearing aids to realise that this is the sound I want amplified. And finally, because my hearing loss affects the higher frequencies, my hearing aids are set to amplify those. This can suddenly catch me out in certain situations - such as when the soprano line dominates in choral music - and I have quickly learned how to use the hearing aid app on my phone to override the artificial intelligence programming.

The hearing aids go in when I get up in the morning and come out at bedtime. I am sometimes conscious during the day that I am wearing them and there are times that I'm aware that I am hearing amplified sound (and I now have sticky-out ears ), but I have no regrets. Conversation is so much easier, and I am enjoying TV and radio much more than before I was fitted with hearing aids. Yes, I sigh with relief when I take the aids out at night and the world’s soundscape is more subdued, but I urge anyone in middle age and older who thinks that they are struggling to hear: go and get your hearing tested, it could change the way that you not only engage with those around you, but also the wider world.