by Jonas Stewart

Created on: April 01, 2009   Last Updated: April 04, 2009

Earphones are used by a very large part of the population. Young people just as adults use them to listen to their music, listen to the news or pod-casts and even learn languages or listen to audio-books. All of these uses can be very satisfying. But mostly listening to music can, especially when done by youngsters, lead to considerable damage to their ears and thus damage their hearing abilities. But why especially youngsters?

Young people are often in opposition the world outside, as one way of finding their own identity is saying "No" to what other people, especially their parents, tell them. This obviously also results in the fact that telling them to turn the volume down just makes them want to hear even louder music. The kind of music young people affect is also influencing the noisiness of their day: Usually, louder and faster music types are preferred, i.e. Techno, House, Rock, Metal or Dance, which all are rather loud. Of course you can adjust the volume yourself, but everybody will agree that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana is somewhat louder than the "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven.

How does loud music affect the ear? Well, in order to be able to hear, sound waves are registered by the nerves in the cochlea, which convert this energy into electric impulses for the brain. When exposed for a long time to loud sounds (music, machinery, jets,...), the energy level with whom the sound waves reach your hearing nerves is too high to be correctly converted and the nerve stops working temporarily, it gets numb. (This is like when you have a wound somewhere, after sometime the pain is much less sharp, because the nerves which register it are then used to the signal of pain and don't react that sensitively anymore.) As with the pain-nerve example, the hearing loss or problems (like tinnitus, a sharp ringing in the ears) are temporary -at first. If you continue exposing yourself to too high volume levels, your hearing nerves can get so violently damaged that they won't work normally anymore or that they even stop working completely. This is due to the formation of scar tissue in the delicate hearing organ which doesn't fulfil its job anymore as nerves are very complex and delicate structures. Once they are damaged by one extreme exposition to dangerous energy levels or repetitive exposition to those quantities of energy, they are irreversibly damaged(, unlike other tissues like the skin, which can be regenerated without any problem if there is damage.).

How can one prevent hearing loss? First of all, headphone users should from time to time turn their volume lower and see if they still hear the music perfectly clearly: If they don't their ears might have gotten used to the high volume and they might be insensitive to lower volume ranges. If this occurs, they should turn the volume really low and try listening to their music this way for some time. One or two loud songs are acceptable, but continuous exposure to extreme volume is fatal for their ears! People who are professionally exposed to high-level noises should wear ear protection. Generally, before going to a concert or in a disco, buy some earplugs and put them in: You sure are gonna hear every beat, and your ears are going to thank you for this in 20 years!

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