Headphones snug around her ears, senior Gaia Sperone sits in class. Music playing, she works on an assignment. As other chattering students become louder, she raises the volume on her computer until she can only hear the music.
Like Gaia, many U-High students listen to music through headphones, in the morning, during working periods and at lunch, and while exercising or doing homework.
What is not widely known is the damage that this kind of listening can cause. Noise-induced hearing loss is a global issue, affecting one in six people under 18 years old.
Gaia often listens to music on her commute and while doing homework, anywhere from three to four hours a day, with the volume typically moderate to loud.
“I think I do try to limit the volume and duration of my headphone use because I know that if you listen too much, it can damage your hearing,” Gaia said.
She uses a feature in her iPhone’s settings that allows users to limit decibel levels, which also sends notifications when the set decibel level has been exceeded. However, this feature is not prominently displayed and not widely known. Furthermore, many students do not limit their sound exposure simply because they may not realize the potential damage sound exposure can cause, or may otherwise simply choose not to listen to warnings.
Maeve Derrig, an audiologist at Lurie Children’s Hospital, emphasizes that to stay safe, students should pay attention to the volume and duration of time they are exposed to loud sound, including music.
“Headphones can go very loud, and it matters how long you listen to them,” Dr. Derrig said. “So we found that if people take breaks from listening, that’s healthier for them, that’s better for their ears, but if you’re listening at a really loud volume, that’s when you’re going to start to damage your hearing.”
Although it is not easy to determine whether a person has hearing loss without the use of an official hearing test, one sign that students should pay attention to whenever they have been exposed to loud sound is ear ringing and muffled hearing, Dr. Derrig said.
“Those are signs of noise-induced hearing loss, also just damage to your ear and listening fatigue,” Dr. Derrig said. “If you’re doing that every single day, you’re going to cause a problem for yourself. So listen to your body.”
Deanna Meinke, a professor at the University of Colorado and a co-director of the Dangerous Decibels hearing health and education initiative, emphasized that hearing health is not a matter of students’ rigorously restricting their listening but rather of striking a balance between enjoyment and safety.
“I would just tell you to approach it, not that music listening and earphones are bad. Approach it, that if you do this, if you listen smartly, you’re going to love your music for a lifetime. When you’re old, you’ll get to enjoy it,” Dr. Meinke said in an interview with the Midway. “If you abuse your ears now you’ll lose that enjoyment, because you’ll develop hearing loss potentially. So treasure the music and treasure your ears.”
