Huh? What did you say?

You know when you're a loner and take refuge in music? Well, sometimes that's not a good thing. This generation is going to be known for higher cases of hearing loss and requisite therapy as a result of increased digital music listening and reality show rejection.

Did you know that you don't have to listen to really loud music in order to affect your hearing? Medium level decibels can still cause hearing damage with prolonged exposure. From Health Canada:

For example, sounds with levels of 85 dBA pose no known risk of hearing loss if you are exposed for no longer than 45 minutes per day. However, sound levels of 85 dBA or higher can pose a significant risk of permanent hearing loss, if you are exposed for eight hours per day. Pop music sound levels ranged from 86 to 102 dBA when researchers used the headphones that came packaged with the CD player. When researchers combined CD players with headphones purchased separately, the sound levels reached 114 dBA - test results also suggested that this was not necessarily the limit.

Bah, my hearing sucks now and I'm still young. And I never really pumped up the volume - I just listened to music for hours on end everyday. I've stopped. =(