As you might suspect, the cause of the carnage was inattention. More than half the victims were struck by trains, and most of the injuries happened in urban settings, where there are far more obstacles than on country roads. The study examined data from 2004 to 2011, and found that men who were younger than 30 were the most likely victims, with one in 10 younger than 18. Some 70 percent of the accidents resulted in death.
As wearing headphones or ear buds becomes an increasingly common phenomenon, the number of injuries increases. The reason is distraction from the real world. Listening to music shifts the perspective from personal locomotion to something else, a dreamlike state of mind that focuses on girls, cars, revenge and a million other situations. This results in the wearer not noticing potholes, phone poles or oncoming trains.
The technical term for the dreamlike state created by wearing headphones is “inattentional blindness,” which is defined as a reduction in attention to external stimuli. Some researches like to call it “iPod oblivion,” but such branding isn’t necessary. The problem all boils down to not watching where you’re going.
Bonking yourself in the head or walking into a train isn’t the only danger headphones can propagate. There’s also the extreme likelihood of hearing loss.
Prolonged Exposure May Result in Hearing Loss
Listening with the volume turned to 11 for hours can create hearing loss. An August 2010 study by the Journal of the American Medical Association found 20 percent of teens in the United States have slight hearing loss. The losses mean that certain consonants can’t be heard, and rustling sounds are also lost. The affected teens were reported listening to high-volume music using headphones for at least five years.
Prolonged noise exposure to any sounds higher than 85 decibels is bad for hearing. To put it in perspective, normal conversation clocks in at 65 db. Hair dryers and lawnmowers clock in at 90 db. A jet plane on takeoff comes in at 120 db, and listening to music through headphones is likely at 100 db.
How do you know if you’ve reached that 85 dB threshold? A good way to keep it under the magic number is to keep your headphone volume at roughly 70 percent of the maximum and 80 percent for ear buds on an iPod (the difference is derived from the insertion into the ear canal of the ear buds). If the headphones are not sound-isolating, you should be able to hear a person who is about an arm’s length away talking to you. If you can’t, your headphone volume is likely too loud.
Most MP3 or streaming players can generate sound that hits 120 decibels, which is the equivalent of a rock concert. Exposure to that level of sound can cause hearing loss after just 75 minutes of continuous exposure. Hearing loss symptoms can include a ringing, hissing or buzzing sound in the ear without any stimulus; difficulty hearing in noisy rooms; and the need to listen to the television, radio or other devices with a higher than usual volume.
Unfortunately, not all hearing loss presents itself immediately. Most hearing loss goes away after an hour or so of quiet. But nerve synapses can be damaged by loud noise exposure, and the results of that damage may not manifest itself until later in life, when hearing loss is accelerated by such damage. This “hidden” hearing loss is not noticed at the time of exposure.
Hearing Loss and Other Problems
Hearing loss is the most obvious problem headphones may create. But there are other issues that can crop up when hearing is affected. Here are four examples of problems caused by headphone damage to your hearing.
1) Low self-esteem and other emotional issues – People with hearing loss are not stupid, but sometimes frustrated people equate the inability to hear with the inability to comprehend. That can lead to problems in personal communication and higher barriers to achievement.
2) Lost job opportunities – Communication is essential to most jobs, whether it is instructions on warehouse operations or directions on when to turn in a project. If your communications are impaired, that can lead to lost job opportunities and a lack of advancement. Some fields that require good hearing – mass media journalism, operating public transportation and teaching, for example – may not be able to accommodate your physical limitations.
3) Education setbacks – If you are hearing impaired, you may be placed in a special needs class. This can slow progress and lessen your challenges.
4) Social barriers – Many social events take place in a crowded restaurant, hotel ballrooms or in large classrooms. An inability to hear can compromise your ability to participate fully in celebrations and limit your connections.
Several states have banned the use of headphones and ear buds while driving, and some are contemplating getting new laws passed that would ban them from pedestrian use as well. Lawmakers' concern is that any time you put your body in motion, distractions can increase the odds that you’ll collide with someone or something.
Fortunately, there are also parental control settings on some headphones and on iPods. You can adjust the volume so that it does not exceed a certain level, ensuring that at least some of the damage caused by long exposure is mitigated.
But ultimately, the responsibility for maintaining a healthy level of hearing is the responsibility of the headphones wearer. Education about how easy it is to damage hearing and the irreversible consequences of losing the ability to hear clearly should be stressed early in life. Let your child know that it’s okay to turn up the music at home, but that wearing loud noises close to the ear could have long-term consequences.