A new study is showing that the use of headphones and earbuds may be detrimental to the hearing of youth. It is not uncommon to pass any tween or teenager right now and see that their ears are plugged. They either have headphones or the more popular earbuds in their ears. They live like they want to block the rest of the world out most times, and maybe they do. Whether they are listening to music or scrolling through social media, they always seem to be wearing them. However, their misuse could be damaging to their hearing.

According to Medical Xpress, children and teenagers are listening to music at volumes that are not considered safe, and this could have some serious consequences. The recommended limit is 70 decibels of leisure nose for a day a year.

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This concern was brought up during the Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, and the full report can be read here. Daniel Fink and Jan Mayes spoke about the use of these devices and how they can harm auditory health. They spoke about how this is detrimental especially to the hearing of the younger generation.

The risk is the highest for those who use headphones for more than an hour a day at more than 50% volume for a 5-year period. While this may seem like an odd conversation to have with your child, it may be an important one. One where mom tells her child to be aware of how they are using their headphones and how often. The concern for children is that their ears have to last them their entire lives, and listening to loud music for a long period of time can cause them hearing problems that they have to live with their whole life.

While this discussion was on headphones, the experts also spoke about how people (in general) are typically exposed to too much noise every day. It may point to the importance of having some ‘quiet time,’ that goes beyond mom just saying that to her children so she can have some peace for a few hours.

We often overlook our hearing health when we think about what we need to do to be safe and healthy, and it may be time for that to change. Making sure that whatever our children are listening to is at a reasonable volume, and it may be wise to encourage them to just let their devices play on speaker instead of through an earbud.

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Sources: Medical Xpress, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America