[ntlk]

I get that we associate focus and attention with not having anything in our ears. But consider that many people, myself included, will wear AirPods in noisy environments, because the Conversation Boost feature makes it possible to hear speech more clearly.

[elmerfud]

In understand that, and it's a valid reason but likely the minority of uses. It bothers me quite a lot that the is such a stigma around hearing aids. Those fake Bluetooth earpiece things were the start of it. That is a social problem where we see hearing aids and associate old abd weak with it. I'm not saying that why you use it, by I do personally know others who use those devices so they look more "youthful".

I think anyone who's going to wear them needs to have extra focus on those around who might be trying to communicate. Or maybe they need an "I'm not listening" light so we know who not to talk to.

[ntlk]

Agreed that the stigma is unnecessary and likely stops many people from getting the support they might find helpful.

In my case the hearing damage is not sufficient to warrant a hearing aid, but it’s also enough to make it hard to understand conversation when there’s background noise. I don’t have the numbers on this but I’d assume there are a lot more people like me, who benefit from added clarity in specific situations, who would not need or even qualify for an actual hearing aid. In those cases a device you already have and use in other context hands down wins over a specialised medical device.