Articles written by Pamela

Courtney Starr: sophomore in graphic design, listens to his iPod on the Concourse. JD Schein / ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

This day in time, it’s common to pass someone with their iPod in, blasting music so loudly that you could sing along with the song you hear.

Let’s face it, turning that volume bar up higher and higher is easy to do if you love great music.

It’s one of those things that blocks the outside world from getting in, gives us a boost while working out, and … ruins our hearing later on in life?

Numerous studies over the past few years have shown that playing loud music from an iPod too loudly for long periods of time can lead to permanent damage to the eardrum and hair cells.

It doesn’t matter whether you use headphones or the small earbuds, harm can still be done.

Sridhar Krishnamurti, the associate professor of Communications Disorders at the AU Speech and Hearing Clinic, says, “The deeper they are in the ear, the closer they are to the eardrum, so theoretically they produce a greater level of sound … The headphones look safer since they don’t go down into the ear, but that is (a fallacy), however the volume is the important thing. You can have earbuds that go deeper into your ear, and be perfectly safe if you keep the volume down to a reasonable level.”