Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Hearing Loss and Music's Role

I was going through an old Rolling Stone magazine from 2005, and they had an interesting article on hearing loss. This new generation that I am currently a part of that is exposed to more technology than ever before will definitely suffer from hearing loss more than earlier generations.

This article specifically focuses on music and music gadgets, which is very interesting. I call this generation the Instant Gratification Generation, and with that comes all sorts of pleasure-seeking activities that do not care much for the body. We like loud music, television, movies, etc. We like things now, fast, and cheap. But will this damage ourselves in any way?

Here are some cool stats from the article:

28 million Americans suffer from deafness as of 2005.

That number is expected to climb to 78 milliom people by 2030.

Over the last 20 years, enviornmental noise has doubled each decade.

The closer to the eardrum the headphone is, the more damage it will do (iPod earphones do not seem to be the best idea).

In a survey on MTV's website, only 8% of young people admitted they fear the risks of hearing loss.

Hearing loss results from a combination of the decibel level and the amount of time you're exposed to it.

A chart shows this information on bad exposure:

-Rock concert without earplugs for .25 hours: 115 db
-Portable music player 60% volume with earbuds for .5 hours: 110 db
-Portable music player 60% volume with normal earphones for 1 hour: 105 db
-Rock concert with earplugs for 3 hours: 95 db

So do you think this issue is a big deal or not?

No comments: