Will you be able to hear well as you enter your golden years?

As we shift into a new decade, music has become increasingly more of a personal medium to enjoy since consumers were introduced to the industry changing mp3 player back in 1998. But as was feared when Sony’s Walkman dominated the personal music market back in the 1980’s, the increasing use of mp3 players in our daily lives has scientists worried. Recent investigations have found that there has been a 30% increase in the amount of teenagers suffering from some form of hearing loss.

This increase in the amount of teenagers suffering from a form of hearing loss is being partly blamed on many teens increasing their volume levels on their personal mp3 players to block out ambient noise whilst they are out and about. A usual signal of its occurrence can be seen when using public transport, as many people listen to music at levels that are unhealthy to counteract the noise of trains whilst they’re travelling.

Naturally, hearing loss is part of the process of aging. As we grow older, we’re less able to hear certain frequencies. Cheekily, school children were using a high frequency ‘mosquito’ noise as ringtones for their mobile phones, as the sound could only be heard by people under the age of 25, and most not by their teachers, who were unable to tell whether students were bringing mobile phones into class.

There is a worrying trend that there will be a larger amount of the population in the near future that will need to have their hearing tested and possibly have to use hearing aids as part of their daily lives. Many members of the European Parliament are worried about the long term effects this has on their residents. They have attempted to counteract this by making mp3 player manufacturers impose an option that enables a restriction on how loud their players can go, with the restriction only allowing levels to go as loud as 80 decibels - roughly the equivalent of an alarm clock ringing. Apple has already included an option to enable this on their ‘iPod’ line of music players, but many fear this setting has gone on deaf ears.

The only thing many scientists are urging the youth to do is simply turn their volume down. It might sound like a bit of parental advice to many, but our chances of hearing well long into our golden years are increased simply by turning our favourite song down a notch.