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Choose One: Lose Sight or Lose Hearing

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Lose hearing. Sure the are downsides. There are upsides as well. Don't have to be annoyed by hearing other people eat, make repetitive sounds, etc. I honestly wish I could turn my hearing on and off because of how easily I am annoyed by sounds sometimes.

As far as priority..

Sight > Touch > Hearing > Taste > Smell

Losing my sight would be devastating, but losing my sense of touch would seriously fuck me up. I have had times where my hands or foot have fallen asleep and cant feel what I am touching and it is so weird how much I take being able to touch for granted. I could barely hold a cup without my sense of touch. I kept thinking to myself I know I am holding it, but I can't tell I am holding it, and I don't know the grip strength I need to use. And that is just holding a cup. Now imagine walking or even running.

I am sure I would get used to it but it would be very hard.
 
Why not both?

1458767805668
 
Hearing 100%. So many ways to communicate now a days and people have headphones in all the time they might as well be deaf.

Not being able to see would affect way too many things and also a burden on family members and friends. I have a 6 month old son, I can take care of him and see him cry. If I was blind my wife would be doing almost all the work if not all of it.

At least with no taste eating healthy would be a hell of a lot easier.
 
Hearing, for sure.

As a writer and a gamer, it'd be such a pain in the ass to not be able to see what I'm doing.

I also sing, but I can live without that.
 
I'm surprised to see things so lopsided, but absolutely I'd lose my hearing over my sight. I wouldn't even have to think about it.
 
I had a similar thought experiment typed up, but I didn't start the thread.

Lose Pandas or Lose Beer




Also, I'd rather loose my hearing. My main form of entertainment is music, and my main form of artistic expression is music, but I'd still rather see.
 
This thread makes me want to watch Daredevil now.

Also, hearing. Easy choice, considering the fact that you can restore at least some of it.

Despite that, it's still a clear choice.
 
This is an interesting thread for me because I was born deaf, I've lived 31 years without any hearing (profound hearing loss)

I can't debate how important music is for you all, I realize the significance of it. If you haven't experienced it in its entirety, then it's not hard to live without it. I do feel the rhythms and the beat through vibrations but I don't hear the lyrics at all

There are some upsides to being deaf. It's neat to communicate by visual only and convoy ideas/thoughts through sign language, which is kinda like pictures instead of words
As long as a deaf person learns strong English, then it works out fine, however, there are several deaf people out there that only know sign language and not English (or whatever their country's language is) and they really struggle to get ahead in life

Sleep is beautiful. Every. Night. I was watching Ben Affleck's Daredevil movie and he sleeps in a coffin with water to help him sleep in silence, and here I'm thinking.. It's really nice to sleep without any noise at all, I can't imagine how hearing people can sleep with babies crying, outside noises, or w/e

I got a big discount on rent once for an apartment in SoCal ($500/mo instead of $900) because a railroad was built right next to it, like 75 feet away from the exterior walls and the landlord was desperate to find tenants to live there

Not being able to hear can be dangerous at times still, I've driven for many years without any accidents but I do get startled when a fire truck or ambulance passes me without me knowing, and aggressive dogs could bark behind me and I wouldn't know until it decides to bite me in my ass, and I was assaulted by a thug because he assumed I was ignoring his threats when he was yelling at me as I walked by

I will say it though... the internet dramatically improved my quality of life in a huge way. In the 90's, I needed someone to call if I wanted pizza delivered or needed to make a doctor's appointment and I couldn't watch any TV/movies, especially at the theaters, all the deaf people in a city would watch an episode of Cheers or Star Trek (no subtitles existed back then) and come together at an restaurant and brainstorm ideas of what actually happened in that TV show afterwards, because... well, we didnt have the internets to look it up, or discuss on a forum... (imagine a real life forum discussion with 10 deafies using sign language)

With e-mail, texting, closed captions/subtitles, and other accessibility tools available in 2010's, it's not bad at all to be a deaf person, albeit, some frustrations in social situations here and there but we learn to live with it

Best day of gaming for me was reading the EGM article about Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast (I think it was 6 pages?) and the idea of being able to chat and connect to people without any barriers seemed too good to be true. Day 1 buy PSO, and my world changed forever that day, it was a dream come true and for once... I didn't feel less than the next person just because I couldn't talk

I've been asked often if I could trade my sight to be able to hear again, and I always say no because then I wouldn't be able to enjoy all the video gaming that I've enjoyed over the years

Yea, long post, I know but here's an perspective for those that enjoyed reading it
 
Hearing ofcourse.. if you cant see shit that sucks even more then not hearing

I am also curious if people would rather lose their legs or their arms.. probably legs
 
thedan001 said:
This is an interesting thread for me because I was born deaf, I've lived 31 years without any hearing (profound hearing loss)

I can't debate how important music is for you all, I realize the significance of it. If you haven't experienced it in its entirety, then it's not hard to live without it. I do feel the rhythms and the beat through vibrations but I don't hear the lyrics at all

There are some upsides to being deaf. It's neat to communicate by visual only and convoy ideas/thoughts through sign language, which is kinda like pictures instead of words
As long as a deaf person learns strong English, then it works out fine, however, there are several deaf people out there that only know sign language and not English (or whatever their country's language is) and they really struggle to get ahead in life

Sleep is beautiful. Every. Night. I was watching Ben Affleck's Daredevil movie and he sleeps in a coffin with water to help him sleep in silence, and here I'm thinking.. It's really nice to sleep without any noise at all, I can't imagine how hearing people can sleep with babies crying, outside noises, or w/e

I got a big discount on rent once for an apartment in SoCal ($500/mo instead of $900) because a railroad was built right next to it, like 75 feet away from the exterior walls and the landlord was desperate to find tenants to live there

Not being able to hear can be dangerous at times still, I've driven for many years without any accidents but I do get startled when a fire truck or ambulance passes me without me knowing, and aggressive dogs could bark behind me and I wouldn't know until it decides to bite me in my ass, and I was assaulted by a thug because he assumed I was ignoring his threats when he was yelling at me as I walked by

I will say it though... the internet dramatically improved my quality of life in a huge way. In the 90's, I needed someone to call if I wanted pizza delivered or needed to make a doctor's appointment and I couldn't watch any TV/movies, especially at the theaters, all the deaf people in a city would watch an episode of Cheers or Star Trek and come together at an restaurant and brainstorm ideas of what actually happened in that TV show afterwards, because... well, we didnt have the internets to look it up, or discuss on a forum... (imagine a real life forum discussion with 10 deafies using sign language)

With e-mail, texting, closed captions/subtitles, and other accessibility tools available in 2010's, it's not bad at all to be a deaf person, albeit, some frustrations in social situations here and there but we learn to live with it

Best day of gaming for me was reading the EGM article about Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast (I think it was 6 pages?) and the idea of being able to chat and connect to people without any barriers seemed too good to be true. Day 1 buy PSO, and my world changed forever that day, it was a dream come true and for once... I didn't feel less than the next person just because I couldn't talk

I've been asked often if I could trade my sight to be able to hear again, and I always say no because then I wouldn't be able to enjoy all the video gaming that I've enjoyed over the years

Yea, long post, I know but here's an perspective for those that enjoyed reading it
Click to expand...


Cool post man, thank you for sharing your story :)
 
Here's the Simpsons on DVS. http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/05/the_simpsons_as.html

Works pretty good I think. It's probably funnier hearing Homer than just looking at him and reading his dialogue.

If you like comedies, they might actually be more enjoyable if you were blind than if you were deaf.

My blind sister's favorite show is Married with Children. She laughs at all the same places I laugh when we watch it together.
 
As someone who is deaf and is using a cochlear implant, I can't imagine losing sight.

There's always a silver lining, at least if you lose hearing, you can regain it. Sight is still lightyears away from having that kind of reliable technology.
 
People in here need to get stoned and listen to their favorite record at least once.

I'd give up sight in a heartbeat before I ever gave up sound.
 
Either going would destroy me. I love music to an almost obsessive degree, and I love fin, television and other visual media with almost as much passion. To take one of them away would kill me inside.

I can't even make the decision in a hypothetical scenario.
 
Hearing, i could really, really, REALLY miss music, but sight is more essential to my hobbies and passions, i guess i'd need a new job but it would be easier to find a job where i don't require hearing than one i don't require sight.

But if could upgrade this to losing any of the five senses, giving up smell would pose the least risk and the least disavantages.
 
Seriously can't comprehend people who value hearing over sight.

Losing your sight guarantees that you'll never be able to do anything in life.

Losing your hearing definitely shuts some doors but you can still live and do plenty of stuff.
 
If I lost my hearing now, the Animaniacs theme song would forever be stuck in my head.

I'm not sure if that's awesome or terrifying.
 
Rather go deaf than blind. Once upon a time I might have said I would rather go blind because of my love of music but my wife and I are currently expecting our second child. The thought of not seeing my newborn son or daughter is definitely more heart-breaking to me than never getting to hear the new Borknagar song that I have had on repeat for the last two days.
 
Easy, hearing.

I actually do things like play videogames with the game muted. Movies have subtitles, I can get around without needing to learn how to feel my way, I can read without having to learn braille, I can see danger, etc etc.

And I can barely see anything out of one eye already. I'd still rather lose two perfectly functioning ears drums.
 
I would think losing my sight would be magnitudes more life-altering than losing my hearing. I'm not trying to make light of deafness or minimize the disability, but even simple things like finding the bathroom in my home would become an ordeal if blindness happened suddenly. It's easier to imagine going on with my normal, independent life if I were to wake up deaf one day. It would be a massive adjustment, but not quite the same as if I were to wake up blind.

Blindness is probably easier to adapt to if it occurs at birth or early childhood. For adults I'd imagine the transition is very difficult.
 
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