Hi everybody,

Actually I'm not a doctor nor something that is related directly with medicine. I have studied engineering and my interests are about audio processing etc. So please forgive for my ignorance and perhaps the question I'm going to ask.

Because of my job I 'm trying to find out the importance of hearing and seeing and how this senses influence our lives. In this way an engineer can find logical and methodological way to construct a program or a machine which interact more physically with humans.

This is my question: If you were supposed to lose one of your the following senses: hearing and seeing, which one would you prefer to keep and why?

I have asked many people and most of them answered: "Of course I prefer seeing". But I think that most of our day we use our hearing, or not?

So I was wondering if there is a dissertation or something related to this or if somebody could give a more medical opinion or just his opinion.

Thanks in advance

I don't know where it was stated but blind folks were found to be the happier than the deaf.

I would rather being deaf than blind. Wow, what a quiet world!

I would be obliged if you would tell me why

I would prefer to be death as I like to maintain independence in movement. I think that being blind would lend to feelings of extreme stress for me due to confinement in freely moving. Having to wait for someone to take me somewhere, not being able to just jump in the car or ATV and go, not being able to walk through the desert and mountains independently, not even to effectively garden, to be in fear of falling and bumping, would lend to physical weakness and feelings of contraction. Light and color and the beauty of the world would be sorely missed as these qualities feed the soul...
I could overcome the loses of deafness, that type of isolation it can bring through learnng new skills in lip reading, sign, and just plain old reading and writing.

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This is not medical advice. Just opinion. Whatever you decide to do your your health is strictly your business and your choice.
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I'm an independent person. I always said that I want to be a hermit when I grow up. Well, I'm grown up. I'm not a hermit; but I'm happy for a lot of alone time.

To remain independent, I would depend more upon seeing. Without hearing, I would need more social interaction though. It would be too boring with deafness; but it would be far too much of a handicap to my lifestyle to be without sight.

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- Jim

My wife was in a church choir with a blind college girl who was blind since birth. When an operation restored her sight the girl became terrible depressed and dropped out of school and choir and out of sight.

Things did not meet up to her expectations probably. Even her reflection in the mirror. That's a sad story. Maybe she has recovered.

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- Jim

If I had to give one up it would be hearing. To live in a silent world would be hard but there are many things you can still do independently including watching TV (captions), using the computer, driving, just getting around easily. I want my sight!

This is my question: If you were supposed to lose one of your the following senses: hearing and seeing, which one would you prefer to keep and why?

I would definitely prefer to keep my sight. Watching the sun rise or set, stars at night, trees and flowers, animals and their young, just the smile or look on a loved one's face, are just some of the many things that make me feel blessed to be alive and seeing. Many times, thoughts or conversation during those moments, go back to how precious our eyesight is.

Years ago in grade school, they chose me to assist a blind classmate in her studies, and even at that young age, the girl was not very happy at all, compared to the rest of the kids, I always felt sad for her.

Well said, kind2creatures. I don't think many people can live with a sudden loss of eyesight. There was a news report several years ago, a middle-aged man lost his eyes by revenge (love affair), in the hospital he told the reporter that he was very desperate. Despite his very supportive wife, children and good financial status, he killed himself one week later.

Born blind should be better. I met a blind girl online, she lives alone, happy, nice. I didn't know she was blind after we talked for a few weeks, she has more typos though.