Wherever we look nowadays, we see people wearing headphones or earbuds. They are becoming increasingly popular the younger generation, for work and for leisure. However, a new report the BBC suggests noise-cancelling earphones could lead to hearing loss. The BBC interviewed doctors and audiologists (hearing specialists) audiology departments five UK hospitals. The doctors told reporters they are seeing many young people who are finding it more and more difficult to process sounds. The young patients say they can hear sounds, but they're often not sure where the sounds are coming . The doctors say noise-cancelling earphones could be the problem.
The BBC spoke to Dr Renee Almeida, an audiologist London's Imperial College. She said there was an increase the number young people complaining poor hearing. She said people need to hear many kinds sounds. One important listening skill is to focus and decide which sounds are helpful. Our ears must filter out sounds we don't think are important. Dr Almeida said: "There is a difference hearing and listening. We can see that listening skills are suffering." Another audiologist suggested that headphones can lead to bad listening habits. She said we can "forget" to hear important sounds, cars beeping. Headphones may even cause problems hearing spoken words.
