Headphones, are they detrimental to health?

It occurs to me that I wear headphones an awful lot. I have some in ear Jaybirds that I use when walking or travelling on the bus. When at home and playing games, I have a headset on. Then at work, I also wear a headset.

Am I going to die?

Yes is the answer but will it be caused by headphones? By this I mean, is excessive headphones wearing detrimental? Other than he obvious listening at high volume or walking into traffic.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 May 2008
Posts
3,738
Location
North Wales
I believe it can be bad for bacteria in your ears, also you do need to be very careful with volume levels as it's easy to damage your hearing in the long term.

I have a friend who works in audio design for games and his advise was to turn it down slightly as it's amazing how tired it can make you listening to things which are slightly too loud. Same goes for audio quality, listen to the highest quality you can as things like low bit rate files obviously miss out bits of the audio to save on file size and your ear/brain makes up & fills in the difference so you will actually feel more tired listening to more compressed audio over uncompressed as your ears are working harder.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
6,748
got tinnitus listening to headphones constantly - i don't think the heat in your ears helps where they're constantly covered.

B@
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
6,748
PVC cups?
Do you mean use PVC cups or was i using PVC cups? Your ears get hot/warmer by covering them with anything to be honest. Now, the damage is done and i won't use headphones anymore. It's not REALLY bad but i don't want it getting any worse.

B@
 
Man of Honour
Joined
26 Dec 2003
Posts
30,834
Location
Shropshire
If it causes you to walk out into the road in front of cars because you're completely oblivious to everything around you then definitely.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Aug 2012
Posts
7,809
Quite apart from the issues of wandering around in public in a personal haze. (Frankly, headphone wearing in public should be banned, along with stupidly loud vehicle ICE)

The problem with headphones is that you cannot "Feel" the sound, so there is a tendency to turn the volume up well beyond the point where one might feel uncomfortable with an external sound source.

And that will make you deaf!

Surprisingly perhaps, AIUI, people who lose their hearing mourn the loss more than that of any other sense.

So really, protect your ears and dont abuse them!
 
Don
Joined
17 May 2004
Posts
12,763
Location
Telford, Shropshire
Bad for health? Other than the obvious volume issues, then not really.

Bad for mental health? I think so - nothing healthy about having headphones on for the vast majority and not interacting with those around you.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Apr 2007
Posts
23,414
Location
UK
I don't know how gamers wear their headphones so often - I think I would prefer to wear headphones to game, but the ones I've tried always make me so hot, I can't stand them on for longer than 45 mins or so :eek:
 
Caporegime
Joined
1 Dec 2010
Posts
52,087
Location
Welling, London
I don't know how gamers wear their headphones so often - I think I would prefer to wear headphones to game, but the ones I've tried always make me so hot, I can't stand them on for longer than 45 mins or so :eek:
Depends on the cup covering. Bit like chairs, PU leather style covers are awfully hot, sticky and sweaty, but fabric covers like the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 are very soft and comfy without getting too hot.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Apr 2007
Posts
23,414
Location
UK
Depends on the cup covering. Bit like chairs, PU leather style covers are awfully hot, sticky and sweaty, but fabric covers like the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 are very soft and comfy without getting too hot.

I haven't tried actual gaming headphones to be honest, so I can imagine they're built to be worn for long periods of time.
 
Back
Top Bottom