Extremely Loud and Incredibly What?
iPods and similar portable jukeboxes are creating a generation of kids with "old ears," according to CNN.
To document the trend, [Purdue researcher Robert Novak] and colleagues have been randomly examining students and found a disturbing and growing incidence of what is known as noise-induced hearing loss. Usually, it means they've lost the ability to hear higher frequencies, evidenced at times by mild ear-ringing or trouble following conversations in noisy situations.The phenomenon is most pronounced with people in their 30s and 40s, who used Walkmen when they first came out. Apparently, it's not just the volume level, either -- it's also the length of time you listen. Keep it at an hour a day, at 60% of max volume, at most, if you don't want to end up wearing a hearing aid to your 30th birthday party.
(Yeah, right...)
Posted at 12:12 PM
i think i'm suffering from mild hearing loss at 20 already. i blame mario in my early years. i do have sweet rhythm and hand-eye coordination though.
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Suck it ears, by the time my hearing goes I'll be able to replace them with some sort of robot ears or better yet plug my iPod directly into my brain
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all of a sudden ipods and portable jukeboxes are being blamed for a problem that's as old as the walkman? or at least as old as earbuds? yawn.
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I'll bet going to shows and standing right in front of the speakers will do a whole lot more damage than listening to your ipod too long on a regular basis.
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Close! ;-)
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What?
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I'm already there (26)...I noticed in the past year that whenever there is a party or social situation I have a really hard time concentrating on only one person's voice (ie. singling it out among the others).
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That's probably because you were drunk.
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I am so fucked
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as a 31 yr old musician, I already have hearing loss. mostly left ear. it is more due to poor choices as a young man, and a mishap with a megaphone. one tip though, throw away the stupid white earbuds you get with the ipod and invest in some quality over the ear headphones. something big. the ringing in my ears reduced drastically when I switched, and I look cool all the time now.
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Should toss those iPod ear buds anyway, due to the fact that they sound bad.
The combination of the iPod's ear bud lack of clarity and the loss of clarity from the transfer to digital file, and you have a pretty piss poor experience to a listener's ears.
Of course, considering all the documented hearing-loss it's no wonder that folks don't seem to care. That and it seems many don't care about music anyway, as the white ear buds end up being more a fashion accessory then anything.
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that was funny funtimeben!
may i follow that up with an:
"Eh?!?!"
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who really listens to music from headphones that much anyway? is everyone really that anti-social? 'cause I know the fatty's in our great US aren't jogging.
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While on vacation in NYC this past February, I lost count of how many of those damn white bud earphones I kept seeing people walkin'/subway ridin' around and wearing.
Fashion accessory indeed!
I got white earbuds with my Zen Micro, but I done stuck with my black Sony over-the-ear headphones, thank you.
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get some decent in ear (canal) phones, shure/etymotics etc ... they block out the outside noise so you don't need to turn them up too high, plus they sound so much better than the crappy white ipod standard ones.
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I work at a school, and some of the high school kids listen to their iPods or CD players at full volume... I always tell them "wouldn't it sound better if it wasn't turned up all the way?" or "aren't you worried about damaging your hearing?"
The answer from them, obvs, is
"What? No"
Good luck kiddies.
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