I've noticed as I get older, that I sometimes find myself needing to turn my head a little to hear what someone is saying. It recently
dawned on me to wonder if the Government has done any sort of
hearing loss study that involves looking back at the introduction of the
Sony Walkman - around 1979 - and the latest "it" music device, the
Apple iPod.
The walkman used to have those over the ear padded things called
Supra-aural headphones. Now
a days the most popular type of headphone is the
earbuds which ship by default with most
MP3 Players like the Apple iPod. The problem with the earbuds
is that they actually sit INSIDE the ear. While this is great for hearing every single little detail, it also leads to louder volume usage.
I'd be curious to see a study that shows cases of hearing loss before the introduction of the Walkman, after the introduction of the walkman, and then
data after the MP3 craze and earbud popularity started. My guess is that several years after the introduction of both products we would
probably start to see an increase in the number of reported cases of hearing issues.
This is just my theory of course, but it seems to me to make sense.
- Scott