Tinnitus at 21: Shit's Real

Features

Kieran Mallon

05 Sept 2018

All Ears are on a mission to prevent young people from perma-damaging their hearing and it's easier than you think

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Imagine that - all the time, forever. That's what tinnitus is: A permanent ringing in your ears that starts one day and doesn't go away until you or the universe ceases to exist. 

It's a well-documented condition and an unfortunately common one. According to Action On Hearing Loss, 10% of adults in the UK suffer from tinnitus and those numbers almost certainly rise when you look at people who spend significant periods of time in music venues. And it's no joke, tinnitus has ruined careers and even lives.

The campaign to get music attendees to recognise the seriousness of tinnitus is ongoing and on the frontline are All Ears: Three ravers from London who have experienced tinnitus first-hand at a tragically young age.

Originally gaining a foothold in the music industry through their artist-led electronic music curation site Watch The Hype, Matt, Oli, and John quickly turned their attention to a stance of social responsibility. After dabbling with a few ideas, the final push was when Matt started suffering from tinnitus despite being barely out of university.

Now, All Ears is a national campaign with partnerships across the music industry. The trio give up their weekends to set up stalls at nightclubs like fabric, E1, and Motion, offering hearing protection and friendly advice to tinnitus-conscious ravers. As of this summer, they've also joined the festival circuit, offering their services at WOMAD, Junction 2, and Creamfields, to name a few.

Damaging your hearing is brought on by the combination of high volumes and long exposure, which is why walking past a jet engine (145 decibels) to get on your plane to Ibiza is fine, but standing next to it for 10 minutes will cause your brain to come pouring out of your ears. 

It's this long exposure that makes tinnitus a real concern for music attendees - club sets can last as long as eight hours and if you're going out every weekend, like the legends that you surely are, tinnitus should be very high on your list of worries. Whether it is or isn't, it's certainly high up on the list of things that could suddenly and drastically alter your life.

The eternal struggle for All Ears is convincing people to wear ear plugs. Which is stupid, really. You shouldn't have to convince people that their hearing is worth preserving, but that's the battle. Let's put it this way, if, for some reason, every weekend you went and stared directly into the sun for 20 minutes, at what point would you think it was a good idea to start wearing sunglasses?

One of the consistent arguments is that wearing ear plugs will prevent you from enjoying the music, but this is only true of bargain bucket, disposable ear plugs. The high-fidelity ear plugs that All Ears pedal are designed for music listening. They contain a filter that gives you a true representation of the music, but will reduce the volume just enough so that no damage is done. They're also considerably better for the environment than disposables, so wins all round.

All Ears also provide useful information on their website for those looking to protect their hearing and for those who claim their ears are 'already f*cked'. Simple things like giving your ears a rest every hour or so but going to hang out in the smoking area or a quieter room (if there is one) can make a world of difference.

Other hot tips include the seemingly obvious 'Don't stick your head in the bass bins, as much as it may seem like fun at the time' because this is a one-way ticket to having to watch Netflix with subtitles.

In all seriousness - loss of hearing can not only ruin music-listening experiences, but can also be incredibly isolating. There's nothing worse than missing out on all the jokes at the afters because you can't hear your mate 6ft away over the hum of a tiny bluetooth speaker, or, god forbid, having to ask someone's name for a fourth time after not hearing them correctly on the previous three attempts.

Now, obviously, not everyone that reads this is going to go out and drop £11 on a pair of ear plugs (despite the very reasonable price point), but at the very least, go to the All Ears site and educate yourself on harm reduction, because tinnitus is grim, easy to inflict on yourself and impossible to get rid of.

Use Discount Code NATIVE10 at checkout to get 10% off All Ears ear plugs