Take a walk outside and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone not wearing headphones. But could this everyday habit be detrimental to our hearing in the long run? Several recent studies say yes, if we’re not careful.
Sorry, what was that? I couldn’t hear you over my LOUD taste in music.
New studies suggest that over 1 billion young people globally are at risk of hearing loss due to poor music listening habits. A total of 33 studies have collected data from over 20,000 people to determine how audio consumption is wreaking havoc on our eardrums.
Poor volume control, when listening to music above the recommended volume level or attending venues, concerts, and festivals with extremely loud speakers, has been recognised as a serious catalyst for long-term hearing loss.
Generally, safe audio levels sit around 60-85 decibels. But research suggests that most of us are consuming music at levels of 90-100 decibels regularly. According to the first-ever study conducted on the subject, things get even worse inside music venues.
After familiarising myself with the data, I can rest assured that I’m not the only one who is regularly told by friends that I listen to my music way too loud.
Based on surveys conducted by the Medical University of South Carolina, at least 24 percent of people aged 12–35 are listening to music at unsafe levels in their free time.
That means 665 million people are at risk of losing their hearing ability from turning up their personal headphones too loud. If this is our standard listening level, it’s likely that many of us are already on our way to having impaired hearing.
People regularly attending loud entertainment venues are at further risk, as giant speakers spew out sound levels at 104–112 decibels on average. The research suggests that over 48 percent of young people, or 1.35 billion individuals, are damaging their ears by attending such gatherings.
It’s worth noting that the damage doesn’t just have to happen overnight. Hearing damage can worsen over the course of our lives, though you may experience your ears temporarily ringing after loud events.
Most scientists agree that regular exposure to loud noises at a young age makes individuals more vulnerable.
So besides rethinking the number of times we tap the ‘raise volume’ button on our smartphones and opting out of standing next to the speaker at bars or festivals, what will young people do if the damage is already done?
How will we cope?
Funnily enough, the solution to the problem might come straight from one of the original sources. This is because certain earbuds used for music can now double as devices that enhance hearing.
For example, Apple’s AirPods Pro can now elevate surrounding sounds and voices through specialised features such as ‘Live Listen’. Rather than using typical hearing aids, young people might resort to using the same technology that damaged their hearing in the first place to cope later on.
Framed inside the current cost-of-living crisis, the cost of AirPods Pro might see many people giving them a hard pass. Still, when compared to traditional hearing aids, which cost anywhere between £1.5–10K, they may be the more attractive option.
The good news is, technology is improving every day. It wouldn’t be a bad guess to say that numerous competitors will match Apple’s technology soon. Still, prevention is far better than adaptation.
Perhaps it’s time to assess our habits and face the noise.
Deputy Editor & Content Partnership ManagerLondon, UK
I’m Jessica (She/Her). I’m the Deputy Editor & Content Partnership Manager at Thred. Originally from the island of Bermuda, I specialise in writing about ocean health and marine conservation, but you can also find me delving into pop culture, health and wellness, plus sustainability in the beauty and fashion industries. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.
The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that it will be investing hundreds of billions on AI centres that will cover an area almost as large as Manhattan.
Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Meta will be splashing out the cash and investing heavily in AI data centres across the US.
The first will be called Prometheus and is planned to be booted up in 2026. The CEO said that one...
The deliveries of eight infants in the UK via a three-person IVF technique have astonished the world. Nonetheless, its connection to a largely prohibited type of genome editing has raised concerns among the scientific community.
Science has once again expanded its frontiers in a landmark procedure that conceived babies via IVF through the DNA of three people. If you feel that this contradicts the fundamentals of conception that we were...
Teens are turning to chatbots for comfort. It might sound dystopian, but in our increasingly isolated world it makes a lot of sense.
It starts innocently enough. A 15-year-old girl downloads an AI chatbot app like Replika or Character.AI, just to see what all the TikTok buzz is about. Maybe she names it Max. Max is charming, always awake, never distracted. He remembers her favorite color, checks in after a...
People continue to seek out ‘nudify’ websites to create explicit AI images without a person’s consent. A recent analysis of 85 such platforms revealed that, collectively, they could be making up to $36 million annually.
We’ve been writing about nonconsensual deepfakes for well over seven years now, and the problem doesn’t seem to be deescalating.
Piggybacking the widescale proliferation of generative AI capabilities, illicit websites continue to spawn under the creepy...
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.