If you had to choose, would you give up your sight or your hearing?

I can barely see. I have worn glasses since I was 5 years old, progressively more myopic. My hearing is now going bad, and I am on the edge of needing hearing aids. I would gladly lose all my hearing if it meant keeping my sight.

I would prefer to keep my sight and train myself to read lips so I know when someone’s talkin’ shit and then I’ll be able to see them when I punch em’ in the head. XD

Absolutely keep my sight, head punching is very important to me :P

Punch head.

I’d rather see the world. Basically, you’re comparing music to art. And if I couldn’t see, I’d be blind to what I love.

I’d rather be able to see everything I love. This is one of those moments where I’m grateful to have both. I can’t imagine not being able to listen to my favourite music.

Hearing hands down!

I’m in a similar position to @YARNLADY : I’ve had very poor vision all my life but I would give up my hearing if I could keep what I have. Even though music is very important to me. I think the benefits of sight are more important to me.

I’d keep my hearing.

Since I don’t play as much music as I used to, and so many more of my activities now include sight, I think I’d give up my hearing. But it’s a close call, since so many of those activities also are enhanced by hearing (and smelling, feeling, tasting).

Oh without doubt I would give up my hearing I could always get a hearing aid

@partyparty yeah, I can say, lip reading. Other than losing your life, losing one’s sight ranks real high up there.

I’d lose hearing and get a cochlear implant.
Is that cheating? It probably is. Oh well.

I think I love music and pretty pictures just about as much, but more importantly, sight is a lot more useful than hearing when it comes to orientation, not bumping into people or walls, et cetera. You simply get a lot more information out of sight than out of hearing.

Plus people with functioning eyes can read. I’d be annoyed to be stuck with Dan Brown and Harry Potter and the other mainstream books popular enough to have an audiobook version. I like my silly Doom novelisations and my mediocre but nostalgic Star Trek pockets and all the other books that only twelve other people care about. Not to mention scientific literature. Or comic books.
Or for that matter, the internet. I’d feel like a quadriplegic without the internet.

Yeah, loss of hearing would definitely be the lesser sacrifice.

I would rather loose my hearing…..I already can read lips, and know sign language….
I just couldn’t give up the books I love, or the movies, or the viewing of the world…
Also I would still be able to enjoy some of the music I love….. for one of the reasons I love it.. you don’t just hear it….you feel it…

My preference would be to lose neither, but if I could keep only one, it would undoubtedly be my sight. I think losing the ability to see my friends, loved ones and the world around me would be unbearable; I could stand not having to hear cell phones ringing and the dogs next door barking.

@BoBo1946 Yes to lose ones sight must be really awful :)

I think I would want to lose my sight. I love music too much

I’d forfeit my hearing hands down.

I had a friend some years ago that was losing her sight. She went from poor vision to complete blindness over about a 3–4 year period. She was in her early 40’s at the time and I forgot the condition that lead to her blindness.

We were riding partners and giving up her ability to trailer her horses out was devastating.

She was very independent and her horses were her life.

Her husband built her a huge outdoor arena and rigged a rope from the back of the house down to arena so she could still ride safely. I’d ride down and help her in catching her favorite horse and assist her with tacking up. She managed remarkably well, but, a few years later her condition was so bad that she had to give up riding all together and move to a more suitable home.

It was so sad, her marriage failed too from the stress, she moved away and left her horses on the ranch with her ex husband. Broke my heart.

At this stage in my life I feel I have just about heard it all so I would opt to keep my sight. Though I think I would really struggle not being able to hear my oldest play his bass guitar. He is getting so darn good and nothing right now brings me as much joy as hearing just how well he does play. I know music enough though that watching him would be almost as amazing as hearing the sounds.

This is a tough question.

I think I’d keep my sight, for a few reasons. Although I love music and would have a really hard time dealing with not being able to hear it, I also love to read and for me, part of reading is seeing and feeling the book itself (I’ll never be able to make the transition to an e-reader, at least not easily).

I’m also an academic at heart – I’m studying toward a PhD so I’ll always be reading, researching, writing, all my life. I know it’s possible for blind people to do these things, but it’d be easier with sight.

And I think, practically, that it’d be easier to make the transition to deafness than to blindness. I’d be able to remain independent, for the most part, and not have to rely as heavily on others for the day-to-day than I would if I were blind.

Hearing. Now that I have language, it would be less of a hindrance – I don’t need anyone as a deaf person like I do as a blind person. Blind people need help crossing the street, counting money (at least in the US), getting around the town, etc. But if I had to be born without one, then definitely without sight.

All of our senses are so important to our interaction with the world, but I feel that the loss of hearing is a “lonelier” option. It’s true that we have noise polution to which we’d all like to turn a deaf ear; but there is so much beauty to be heard—music, the sounds of nature, the laughter of children—and on and on. In that I am hearing impaired, and knowing that I’ve missed a lot of conversation and other “good” noises during my life, I fear the final loss of what little I have left.

@kenmc Seeing the world is one of many reasons why I’d go for sight over hearing. Also, “you’re comparing music to art..” ... Is music not an art in itself?

i’d give up both.

I would rather lose my hearing. The thought of never seeing the faces of my husband or my precious daughters again gives me the shivers. I couldn’t bear to lose my sight.

”Blind people need help crossing the street, counting money (at least in the US), getting around the town, etc.”

No, most of them really don’t. My blind friend Chris gets around just fine, and takes rather good care of his wife who’s in a wheelchair and their blind and autistic eight-year-old. (Seven? Eight? I think he’s eight now. Whatever, it’s something around there.) People who try to “help” him are almost always actually more of a hindrance. He’s probably the most resourceful, independent, stable, and trustworthy person I know. Most of the time I forget he’s blind.
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That said, I’d still choose to keep my sight over my hearing. Thanks to Chris’ example, I’m sure I could adjust and live with blindness if I had to. But if there’s a choice, I’d be much more okay with not being able to hear.

Many people in the deaf community do not see being deaf as a disability. I would definitely rather be deaf than blind….there are many ways to compensate for being deaf, being blind would be much more difficult.

I love my music and the sounds of nature, but I’m also a very visual person. Losing sight would be harder to overcome than losing hearing for me. It would be harder to be independent, I love art, and I love the sights of nature. Losing vision would take more away than losing hearing.

I would have to say my sight. I too find more beauty in sound and the idea of not being able to hear my boyfriend laugh doesn’t bear thinking about for me.

Now I’m nort so sure. As I’m listening to the opening notes of nerve damage, Lifehouse, and thinking of laughter, I need to think a little more on this throughout today.

I would give up my hearing. I have no issue with learning sign language but I’d hate to never see my love’s eyes or my kids’ smiles again.

You guys are killing me. There are so many little treasures in life aren’t there.
@Simone_De_Beauvoir Very nice. :)

I guess I would have to give up hearing only because as I get older my sight is getting worse and I would hate to end up partially blind and deaf.

Your question could have many possible answers for many possible reasons. here is what i mean:

I am 67 years old. having lived the majority of my life with good hearing and vision, i know i am now faced with hearing loss and wear hearing aids. thank God i have a good memory. if i lost my eyesight, my memory would still recall what a beautiful sunset looks like. if i were born blind, i would not have this memory to fall back on. i have also heard just about every sound on earth. again, had it not been for my memory, i would not recall a described sound.

Bottomline: i had rather be deaf, than blind.

Just imagine what a person has to contend with that is blind and deaf. it has to be a lonely, lonely life.

I would, like most here rather lose hearing but I would miss music terribly. Silence silence silence.

I’ve already lost 65% of my hearing, I learned to read lips pretty well at a young age. So I guess if I lost my hearing it wouldn’t be so catastrophic. But I’d rather keep both thank you.

hearing b/c i like seeing new things

hearing, don’t even have to think a second.

I’d give up my sight. Sure there is independence lost, but I feel that I could best adapt to a life without vision. I’ve seen beautiful sunsets, rainbows, mountains, tundras, plains, paintings, patterns and people, but the visual component has never been the most important to me. I’ve never been brought to tears by a wonderful sight, but I have been by beautiful music. I can enjoy movies with my eyes closed much more than I can with the sound off. I’d miss my sight, obviously, but we’re talking about would-you-rathers in a pretty awful circumstance. I could still enjoy the things I love most, food, friends, touch, sex, music, family, beer, conversation and laughing. Plus I think I’d enjoy the challenge of learning to navigate again.

I’ve complete nerve deafness in my left ear. Recently I experienced a health issue that caused partial blindness in my left eye. Having one side of my vision and hearing operating forced me to adjust how I look and move, and it changed my perception of my environment. I’ve learned to adjust.

If I had to pick absolute blindess or deafness, I’d choose vision to lose. The technology available to navigate one’s environment without vision, to me, is better than hearing technology. Also, I can feel what I cannot see. Feeling sound, on the other hand, is not the same. The richness of voice and music mean too much to me to forfeit.

I was interested to hear that deaf people have a much harder time integrating into their native culture than blind people. That’s because so much is missed in tone of voice, facial expressions, pauses in conversation, and so on, not to mention all that you hear in nature and music that would be missed if you were deaf. Of course, now that school children who are mainstreamed and are fortunate enough to have a personal interpreter who can follow them from classroom to playground, and that does help a great deal.

I would rather keep my sight, as much as I love listening to music and the sounds of nature, sight to me offers so many more advantages. You can still read books (not all are available on tape). You can still watch movies (subtitles work). You can still see the expressions on your loved ones’ faces (priceless). You can always learn sign language. You can actually see where you are going. You can browse the internet. You can enjoy sight-seeing. I can really go on and on. It would sadden me deeply to lose any of my senses, but the less of two evils for me would be my hearing.