iPod creating a "deaf generation"
Our love affair with the iPod (or indeed other brands of MP3 player) could see today’s children go deaf up to 30-years earlier than their parents, according to new research.
Deafness Research UK believes that children face premature deafness because they play their iPods too loudly. Their theory is based on a national UK survey conducted by the group, which found that 14 per cent of people spend up to 28-hours a week listening to their music player. "More than a third of people who have experienced ringing in their ears after listening to loud music, listen to their MP3 player every day. Ringing in the ears, or tinnitus, is a sign of damage to their hearing," it warns.
And according to Vivienne Michael, chief executive of Deafness Research UK: "Many young people are regularly using MP3 players for long periods of time and are frighteningly unaware of the fact that loud noise can permanently damage your hearing." One-in-three (38 per cent) of 16-34 year olds don’t understand that listening to loud music on a personal music player, going to loud bars or gigs, playing loud music in the car or working with machinery, can damage their hearing.
Apple has taken action on volume earlier this year, introducing volume control for iPods nanos and fifth generation iPods.
Deafness Research UK
More iPod:
Intempo Digital releases iPod Speakers
Go fishing with your iPod
2 comments
The thing that is so great about this problem.Is that we live in a free country minus the whole force feed Religious crap that has forced down everyones throat everyday. If you talk about how dumb people are just remember Darwin survival of the fittest or natural selection. If kids parents are to dumb to teach them better its not up to anyone else.
I find it almost unbelievable that people cannot grasp such a simple link between loud noise and deafness. Obviously they never listened to their biology lessons in school, which explained that loud, continuous noise had the ability to damage the ear structure and thus associated hearing.
Its the same with in-car stereos; all that thud thud thud at max decibels, and you see the drivers sat there without a care in the world.
Still, you can’t get the message across, they think they know it all, so the best way to teach them is to let it happen. Then, thirty years on, they’ll start moaning about “how the government should have told us about the dangers”, etc etc…..as with many young people today, they’re too stupid to realise the dangers themselves.
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