Nearly two years ago I did interviews with Steve McPherson from the former-Pulse, Ross Raihala from the Pioneer Press, David DeYoung from HowWasTheShow, Steve from TheRocknRollStar, Andrea from HWTW/MinneapolitanMusic, Peter from SovietPanda and Lee from Dinosaur In Trouble about earplugs.
I’d been noticing a significant impact on my hearing after close to a decade of standing in front of stage stacks at rock shows a few times a week. It turned out, earplugs are what the cool kids wear.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association had a CES booth promoting their new promotional Web site, http://listentoyourbuds.com, advocating hearing loss prevention through safe usage of personal audio technology. You know, mp3 players.
According to the site, “Listening to headphones at high volumes for extended periods of time can directly result in lifelong hearing loss. The loss may occur painlessly and gradually over time and – this is important! – Noise-Induced Hearing Loss often goes unnoticed until it’s too late…More than half of high school students in the U.S. report having at least one symptom of hearing loss according to a 2006 poll commissioned by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association.”
Tips include:
- Keep the volume down. I start low and gradually bring it up rather than starting on 10.
- Limit listening time by giving your hearing “quiet breaks.” I do this on planes.
- Upgrade your earbuds, which sit inside the ear, to earphones that fit outside the ear and block out unwanted sound. I have a sweet pair of Bose headphones that are not only better for longterm hearing, they simply rock when it comes to aural detail.
And while I was initially against the iPod firmware update that set volume limits and love to “turn it up to 11,” the fact that my hearing loss impedes my daily life is enough for me to applaud the group and want to give a shout out to the site.
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