What?

Did you say something?

I earned my hearing loss the old fashion way.

I believe I see where you are going with this, Clay. However, I really can't say this is any worse than those who would share their love for 'bass speakers' while driving up and down the respective main streets of every town in America.
Teens have always found different ways of ignoring adults, but now it appears adults have discovered a way to ignore everyone else. And if no one is listening, who will know what they missed out on?
I'd attempt to explain it to them, but I can't seem to get their attention.
But...thank you for your time and attention

Oh, before I forget...Rolando you really need to buy a new dictionary...and look up "uncivil". I'm actually a pussycat.

Woody

CAN'T HEAR YOU! Too busy swearing at my new printer-scanner and HP Support.

What is the name of the big book that lists Corporations and Home Office addresses? I think it begins with a "B"

I've tried googling but all I get is the HP Store and Support. This has been going on for weeks.

After buying this computer, I can't own cell phones and televisions, thankfully.

This is not about ignoring anything... except the warnings of your doctor, perhaps.

There have been several stories about this in the past, but there was a study was released a few days ago about the hearing damage being inflicted on the iPod generation.

http://www.boston.com/news/health/articl...

According to the director of diagnostic audiology at Children's Hospital in Boston, some young adults in their 20s - who listened at high levels hour after hour, day after day - are being diagnosed with hearing at the level of a typical 50-year-old,

Ha! Nice try! This makes me think that Clay is one of those people who will blame fast food for making people fat. It's all about choices. I listen to music alot (have owned multiple iPods & CD/cassette/record players), as well as performing live music frequently, shooting firearms, operating loud machinery, and riding motorcycles. I have been doing all of this for 20 years, and I don't have any hearing problems. Why? The answer is simple: I choose to do it all responsibly (with proper hearing protection and/or at proper volume levels).

Why don't I just try to blame the newspaper for making my eyesight go bad with it's small print?!?! That makes just as much sense.

Woody- An iPod may not be as obnoxious to the rest of us as a booming bass speaker, but I believe they're more damaging to the inner ear.

Certainly, any sounds at a very high-decibel level can possibly cause hearing damage. But the chance of that happening is increased because of the earbuds that are typically used with an iPod. These little earphones fit directly into the ear canals, so it often ends up being the audible equivalent to shotgunning a beer.

Hearing loss from loud noises is forever. I know because when I was younger my hearing was damaged from shooting and now I struggle to understand conversations. How do you convince those younger today? We probably can't.

How do we convince them, EaTn?

Well, soon we might have to do it with sign language.

Some of you are really just looking for an argument, aren't you?
Woody is right. User_name (though obnoxious) is right. Toonfan is right.
This is a problem with many layers. It is the parents' responsibility to talk about it with their kids and set a proper example but, ultimately, the kids are going to do what they want. And maybe they'll pay the price but that's their burden to bare.
I do wish they'd stop believing I want to hear THEIR car stereos over MINE though...

EaTn,

We would have a wierd conversation if you and I talked face to face.

My FRIENDS and I always have a good laugh when I forget the hearing aid that does nothing but magnify ALL the sounds around me, so I still can't hear, and my misinterpretations of what I do hear are often hilarious.

Those expensive dingies sure sound like they'd help, but then, if I had an IPod, I'd get into even more trouble, since I'd have to take out the hearing aid...and I wouldn't have a computer!
Choices! Choices!

The word was coined with you in mind, Woody. You evidently caught the gist of the meaning so there was communication. And communication is the sole purpose of language.

You are becoming one of those who, failing to find fault in the arguments of others, attacks them with trivialities.

For shame for carrying one threads comments over to another...

moonpie and nucanuck -- Great first posts.

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Loss of hearing as one ages is normal. It will be accelerated by repetitive loud noise -- gun fire, rock bands, lawnmowers, power tools, etc. The hearing loss is usually frequency dependent -- i.e., low booming noise means low frequency loss, high speed [wood] routers mean high freq loss.

I have charts tracing my losses over the years. One can see the effect gunfire has, even with earmuff noise suppressors.

Point is, living itself causes hearing loss...sometimes gradual, sometimes not so gradual. Life-style choices have everything to do with it. If it isn't an iPod, it is something else.

In the meantime, the hurricane season will soon be here, there will probably be more fires in the west, the rich will be getting richer, etc., politicians will continue to lie and evade, children will be born, and the world will come to an end as we know it, people will massacre each other in Africa, there will be famines and people will starve, drug dealers will deal, cheaters will cheat, and a whole lot of other inappropriate and horrifying things will happen to humanity. Oh! And manufacturers will manufacture harmful stuff such as contaminated food,and IPods and get rich(er). Sigh!

These earbud players have ruined music too, as producers now engineer tracks with more dynamics to match the low watt amps that power the crappy little speakers. I'm reminded of the complaints from Metalica fans following thier last release (and that was produced by uber specialist Rick Rubin).

As an aside, I was following a minivan the other day, and could see the twin video screens playing cartoons and video games. I realized we may be raising a generation that wont know how to get to the mall because they weren't paying attention when they were young.

Who's responsible for the health of my hearing? (Hint: It's not Apple.). My ear bud packages had warnings about playing music too loud.
On hearing issues I can't control, I think the sound levels in movie theaters are too high. Maybe the TFP could hire an Audiologist to secretly measure and report the sound levels.
The Hip-Hopsters play music so loud in their cars that they seem to vibrate (The cars.) Of course, in later years, they will have a disproportionally higher loss of hearing and will become a government protected class and be eligible for preferential treatment.

May is "Better Hearing Month". Enjoy.

Very pointed art Clay.

I didn't see anyone mention it but as bad a hearing loss is, Tinnitus is a much more debilitating effect of abusing one's ears. Constant ringing that never goes away. No thanks.

Not that it makes a lot of difference to this particular blog, but I forgot in my last comment up above that floods, tornados, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and pestilence, are also with us. Hmmmmm! At my age I've been VERY lucky to have had only the ordinary bad luck. My bad hearing came from a virus infection about 25? years ago.

I agree that movies are way too loud, una61, even for my bad hearing. I don't go so that problem is eliminated. What gets to me is a vacuum cleaner!

Come to think about it, wasn't there a push to eliminate sound pollution a while back? There was a list published about the decible level of various items. How would they measure the decible level of the IPod in your ear?