AirPods can damage your hearing — here’s how Apple could prevent it

Jan 2020 TNW 

This article was originally published by Hiroo Aoyama, a product designer who loves startups, writing, and anime. He’s either finding user needs to work on or searching for what anime to watch next.

I want you to pause for a moment and think about how much time you spent listening to music today. Maybe it’s 30 minutes? Or an hour? According to Nielsen Music, on average, Americans now spend just slightly more than 32 hours a week listening to music — that’s approximately 4.5 hours per day. Now, I want you to think about how often you’ve noticed that your music is too loud. According to a study in 2019, many of you will probably answer never. Without much awareness of the music volume for that many hours, AirPods could lead to hearing loss. In this article, I present the science behind hearing loss and examine the problem as well as various potential solutions that Apple can look into.

Read more: AirPods can damage your hearing — here’s how Apple could prevent it

Hearing Loss and Hearing Solutions - A Guide

Here at last is our 2018 revision of the "Hearing Loss and Hearing Solutions - A Guide" that we have published in PDF format for the enjoyment of users. Our original version was reviewed very favourably and attracted a lot of viewers.

You can view/download it from this link:  Hearing Loss and Hearing Resources - A Guide (91 pages, 2.4 MB size). 

We welcome edits, corrections, updates, suggestions etc. Contact the authors via email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Here are some of the professional comments about our new 2018 version.

Overall Reactions to Second Edition:
Monica Bray (Cochlear): I’ve just discovered the wonderful Hearing Guide. It's an awesome resource.
Jade Parr (Advanced Bionics): What a great resource.
Roberta Marino (Fiona Stanley Hospital) with permission:
I really enjoyed reading the guide!  It's brilliant. So comprehensive, easy to read and relatable. I'm really impressed with the level of detail and can only imagine the hours you've spent researching new updates. The guide will positively impact so many people including professionals.  I can see it being so useful for instance, at our hospital when new medicos have a rotation in the Ear, Nose and Throat Department or when we have new Audiology students in our Department who are new to implant devices. Again - well done!  It's fantastic there's people like you who are so pro-active and care enough to put in the hundreds of hours required to develop such a useful and thorough guide.

Overall Reactions to First Edition:
Margaret Anderson: It's going to be a great resource for consumers and all sorts of people. Well done for tackling it!
Marie-Louise Hekel: Congratulations on this most thorough publication. You have done a splendid job. It would be a very valuable resource, not only for hearing impaired people, but professional audiologists in particular.
Roberta Marino: I think you’ve done a brilliant job. You really have a great understanding of how the different devices can be applied. If you don’t mind, when the product is finished, I’d like to pass it on to training ENT’s at the major teaching hospitals here in Perth and also the upcoming Audiology students.
Sarah McCullough (Advanced Bionics): Well done on all your hard work
Linda Ballam-Davies (Cochlear): It looks great and you've done a top job.