GenInv – Health and Wellness

Do you use an iPod or Zune? A recent government study indicates that one in five youth are in danger of permanently losing their hearing if current trends with portable music players and ear-bud technology continue unchanged. This number translates into a staggering 6.5 million people with varying levels of hearing loss. The question is do we believe this will have long term effects on our youth and young adults, or for that matter, anyone utilizing this technology too much?

The si

a requiem for hearing hearing

mple answer is yes, ultimately these technologies will contribute to hearing loss and will continue to do so in the future until people understand the nature of hearing, hearing loss and what that will ultimately mean in their personal lives. I believe this is a continuing social trend and will have terrible consequences for users of these technologies. Furthermore, I believe that there is a social consequence that is unconsidered as these devices grow more popular and saturate our society. Thi

s is a multi-layered problem, personal, cultural and societal.

A few questions that have been asked while I did research included:

›› Is the use of Personal Music Devices such as the Zune or iPod a cultural trend that will pass or is it something that will continue growing greater with each year?

›› Why the need to play music all the time–are such music listeners avoiding personal growth issues by simply drowning out the need to listen to internal dialogue that m

ight be beneficial for personal development?

›› Why are so many young people unaware of the damage they are doing to their hearing capabilities listening to music at 120 to 140 decibels directly into their ear canal?

Loss at the Personal Level
I see a degradation in the communication skills of our newest generations currently in high school, college and attempting to enter the workforce. They would rather text than talk, would rather use a video to interview and believe that their social media or brand is all it takes to identify them. Unfortunately, no matter what social media salespeople are telling you, real communication is still not only necessary, but critical to employment today.

This loss of communication skills is curious but growing, even while the number of ways we can communicate proliferates. Another correspondence of portable music use has been increased using the devices to ward off random conversation. A ride on the bus or subway shows just how prolific these devices have become and how little human interaction is taking place. Try to start a conversation anywhere today and you might be hard pressed to even be noticed.

These devices are being used to create an personal environment filled with constant sound saturation, choking off any personal dialog, introspection or self examination. Some may denote that introspection is a less than useful past time, but the human mind requires time to process its interactions, it work, its lifestyle, its family and friends and that introspection is how we become better human beings. Putting off introspection will not make developing your internal character any easier.

Social engagement is on life support; personal introspection can be delayed, perhaps forever, as long as you can keep the volume up. This will not lead to well adjusted, socially interactive or responsive human beings.

When your world grows silent
When you lose your hearing (notice I say when, not if), you will lose an entire world of abilities and experiences that you currently take for granted:

You will lose your music, the thing you loved so well, you played your iPod or Zune or (insert brand name here) until it deafened you. You will never hear those sounds again. You may feel the vibrations if you get close enough to a loud speaker, but subtlety of sound is lost to you. Gone will be one of the greatest artistic expressions of the human species, second only to speaking; music.

World travel will be diminished for you. No Gregorian chants in huge monasteries, no symphony in D minor at a magnificent concert hall, lost are the acappella sounds of African tribes who sing like angels, the sonorous majesty of a bagpipe on the moors, the roar of an African lion on a veldt, these will be sounds denied to you when your hearing has vanished completely.

You will never hear your child’s voice or your grandchildren asking you to pick them up or run with them. No sound so sweet will ever grace