Will my generation have hearing problems because of how good headphones are?

Chris
#1. May 15th, 2008, at 11:36 AM.

It depends. If you keep the volume loud enough so someone else can hear it, you’re permanently damaging your ears. Keep it to a normal level, and you’ll be fine. But altogether, yes, most people in your generation will develop hearing loss faster because of MP3 players being too loud.

By the way, I think you put your question in the wrong category,

Nah Z
#2. May 15th, 2008, at 10:25 PM.

Not likely! Headphones can contribute to some low-level hearing loss, but you would seriously have to be overdoing it to produce even a mild db loss. You’d notice the loss far before it would be ’severe’ or ‘profound.’

truefirstedition
#3. May 17th, 2008, at 1:53 PM.

It’s possible. The danger is in how loud the headphones are. If you use them in very noisy places (buses, trains,etc), then you have to turn the volume up. Some people just play their music too loud.

northern girl
#4. May 19th, 2008, at 7:56 PM.

I think that you have hit on a very important point. I am really scared about people today who are totally plugged in with headphones all of the time.
When I’m at the gym, nobody interacts with anybody else because they are plugged into their music and sometimes it is so loud I can hear it.
I think that yes, people will lose their hearing more quickly and you will see problems with deafness in a much younger population in the coming years.
I don’t listen to my i-pod any more because of this. Just living in the world today is noise enough!