Excerpt from 2013 Reuters/Fox article:
For the new study, almost 4,000 Flemish high school students completed a questionnaire about temporary and permanent ringing in the ears, also answering questions about their attitudes toward loud noises and hearing protection.
Three out of four kids experienced temporary tinnitus, and one in five heard ringing all the time. Only five percent of the kids said they used any kind of hearing protection against loud noise, such as ear plugs, according to results in the journal PLOS ONE.
That's 1 in 5 Flemish teens, not 1 in 5 teens. I wouldn't extrapolate that singular study and apply it to all teens.
Excerpt from 2011Daily Mail article:
In the last two decades we have seen more people in their late teens and early 20s with tinnitus because they have been exposed to music that is too loud.
I consider this to be a result of technology exceeding the threshold of the human body, just as gunshots exceed the threshold. We aren't genetically designed to listen to anything for long periods of time through earbuds or headphones, and especially not at high volume. It makes no more sense than to stare at the sun.
It's hard enough to avoid loud noises even if you're conscientious about them. When I walk my dog and a car drives by with its sound system blasting, I just say, "There goes a future tinnitus sufferer." I have known about tinnitus for a long time, and it surprises me that so many people have never even heard of it. In my opinion, these articles don't convey how horrid this affliction can be, if you're one of the unlucky ones who has it beyond the mild or moderate level.
Teenagers should be taught in school about the risk of getting tinnitus from noise exposure, just as they are taught about the risk of contracting STDs from unprotected sex.
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