Hearing loss or sight loss... which is worse?

so i am riding muni today home from work. i am being a typical san francisco girl... i hopped onto the M line outbound to get from trendy downtown where i work to the city version of suburbs where my adorable overpriced apartment is. of course i have an ipod (mini) and my large timbuk2 bag... what could be more san francisco than that!? ok, don't answer that. i know what you're thinking dirty minded people. oh crap, i just gave away that it is i who is dirty minded.

sorry, i digress...

i have my headphones on and i am peacefully listening to my music while jammed like a sardine on this train. obviously my music was annoyingly loud because some older woman starts talking to me. i only notice this because i see her mouth moving while she is looking right at me. i pluck one of the little white earbuds out of my ear and she repeats, "you know, i read somewhere that people who listen to ipods are loosing their hearing. you should be careful."

"it's not my hearing i'm worried about" i sweetly reply. "it's the rapid loss of my ability to see things more than five feet from my face from all of the computer work i do." she looked horrified. not at my retort but at the idea that the youth of america could be turning into a generation of nearsighted people! holy cow.

all of the people around us were totally entertained that i was even having a conversation back and forth with this woman. they were smiling at me and rolling their eyes as she gave me some concrete advice about getting up from my desk regularly and taking frequent breaks to look away from the screen. it was great.

i love muni.