Think Twice When You're Listening to your Music on Full
Written by: Luke Larsen & Kasper Roy
9F Journalism
Are iPods a good thing? Or a bad thing? iPods help people have fun by listening to music, but there are side effects with hearing problems. Audiologists believe tens of thousands of young people are causing damage to themselves. These young people who listen to their iPods on a high volume are likely to suffer from tinnitus and loss of hearing later on in life. The experts say that iPods and mp3 players should be made so that they can go to 90db, about two thirds of the maximum volume they can go to now. iPods can reach up to 120db with the right type of ear phones. 120 db is about how loud it is when a jet plane takes off. The experts say that one hour should be the maximum time in a day that you listen to your music. At 85 db witch is your iPod just over half full, listening to it for 8 hours could cause hearing damage in the long run. At 90 db which is your iPod just over ¾ of the way full, could cause the same amount of damage in four hours as the 85db would in eight hours. And at 105- 110 db it could cause you damage in just 8-15 minutes! At that high volume it is about the same as standing 40feet from a jet plane taking off.
But why do people listen to their music so loud? Reasons are that people would rather listen to their music than the sound of the things around them. An example would be if someone is walking down a side of a high way on a sidewalk listening to their music that person would rather listen to their music than all the cars passing them, so they crank up the volume louder than the vehicles so they can hear the music. People could avoid listening to their iPods during the day, or just turn down the volume. But there are ways to not have your music so loud. If you are a person who doesn’t like to hear background noises while you are listening to music there are sound canceling ear phones. That way you don’t have to have your music so loud and you won’t hear the outside noise.
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