system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 why do our ears sometimes ring?
gpt
Your cochlea(inner ear) is made up of very very tiny cells that can be easily damaged by loud sounds, illness, etc.  Your cochlea is then connected to your brain via the auditory nerve.  If either of these two parts gets damaged, your brain can misinterpret what is being heard(or not being heard).  As these cells get damaged over time (natural), your brain starts to think it is hearing a sound that isn't really there. Although you physically hear stuff with your ears, you can't hear it without the signals reaching your brain safely.

For example, let's say you have a computer speaker.  The speaker is kind of old and the wire is starting to break at the base of the speaker.  You play music but sometimes if you move the speaker around, you might hear some static.  That's because the old, frayed, broken wire is messing with the audio signal.  The old wire at the base of the speaker is like your cochlea, and the speaker is like your brain misinterpreting the audio coming from your computer(your ear).