Young people often spend leisure time listening to unsafe levels of music on their personal devices, creating an emerging public health problem. The amount of time spent on personal devices makes selecting appropriate headphones and volume levels even more important. It’s still possible to enjoy time on personal devices at Squires Park safely, so consider these factors when purchasing your next set of headphones.
What Types of Headphones Exist
There are two types of headphones: on-ear and over-the-ear. On-ear headphones sit directly on the ear, while over-the-ear encompasses the entire ear. An example of on-ear headphones would be earbuds. Hearing specialists tend to prefer over-the-ear headphone options due to the comfort level for the listener and the way sound travels to your ear.
What Else Should I Consider?
There are a couple of factors to consider when selecting headphones, which include how sound enters the ear and how well the headphones block outside noises. On-ear headphones pose a risk to hearing because the sound is delivered directly to your ear canal. Since many on-ear headphones offer poor noise cancellation, the listener often turns up the volume to unsafe levels to offset background noise. On-ear headphones can also cause earwax buildup by pushing ear wax into the ear canal, due to how they are worn. This could result in an unsafe volume increase to accommodate the blockage.
Noise-cancelling over-the-ear headphones are ideal because you won’t have the need to increase volume due to blockages or distracting background noise. They also have the added benefit of additional room for sounds to reverberate as opposed to being delivered directly into the ear canal.
As with most products, quality is also important. Whether on-ear or over-the-ear, the better the sound quality, the less you will find yourself increasing the volume.
Tips For Headphone Safety
Headphone safety isn’t just about the type you choose to purchase. You can practice safe habits with the pair you have now by following a few tips.
Some headphone safety considerations:
- Take breaks from your headphones if you’re using them for longer than an hour.
- Don’t exceed 60% of your headphones’ volume capacity.
- Listen to any technology warnings that your headphones are too loud.
Since we often spend time listening to music alone, we may not realize if our volume is too high. It doesn’t take much to cause irreversible hearing damage, but you can still safely enjoy your hobbies by practicing safe listening habits.
If you have questions, talk to a hearing specialist at Advantage ENT & Audiology.