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Jamie Berke
Deafness Blog

By Jamie Berke, About.com Guide to Deafness

Today's Teens Don't Care If They Go Deaf?

Monday June 15, 2009

We have heard the warnings about the dangers of hearing loss from overly loud iPod and cell phone use. The danger level for iPod use is 80 percent volume for 90 minutes daily. This article is the first one I have read that quoted a teenager as simply not caring if he went deaf. his teen said: "I'm probably going to have problems when I'm old anyway, why not have bad hearing?" One reason for the flippant attitude is that hearing damage from excessively loud iPod/cell phone use won't show up til years later, when these teens are well into their careers.


Maybe we need to advertise to parents of hearing teenagers, "Parents! Worried about your teen's loud music? Introduce your teenager to a deaf or hard of hearing person." Then the teenager would have a chance to find out in advance what their lives would be like if they don't quit the loud iPod/cell phone use.


I remember in high school attending ONE rock concert, and being shocked at how loud it was. And I was already deaf. Plus, one possible reason I lost more hearing (besides my progressive loss) as I got older, was from overamplification of my hearing aids.


Source: York Daily Record, June 15, 2009

Comments
June 15, 2009 at 10:36 pm
(1) Aidan Mack says:

Horray! Teens know better than many ignorant people. It is fun to be Deaf… It is so awesome to be Deaf. Rock on!!! I like their attitudes… It’s nothing wrong to be Deaf.. :o ) Aidan

June 16, 2009 at 8:39 am
(2) susan says:

I second Aidan Mack. Shame on you for bringing it up as if being Deaf is horrible. If teens go Deaf, they will experience the enrichment of the Deaf community. Why worry about it? We have ASL.

June 17, 2009 at 11:00 am
(3) Dianrez says:

It’s really not funny. In the agency where I worked in the past, we saw people in their late 20’s to mid 30’s come in, very distressed about their hearing loss. One was a rock singer who needed hearing to work. Actually, it’s as upsetting as people losing vision and suddenly unable to read even with glasses.

August 18, 2009 at 5:17 pm
(4) mime says:

woohooo! you guys are dumb. we are trying to preserve our teens hearing.

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