Video gamers worldwide may be risking irreversible hearing loss and/or tinnitus—persistent ringing/buzzing in the ears—finds a systematic review of the available evidence, published in the open access journal BMJ Public Health.
What evidence there is suggests that the sound levels reported in studies of more than 50,000 people often near, or exceed, permissible safe limits, conclude the researchers.
And given the popularity of these games, greater public health efforts are needed to raise awareness of the potential risks, they urge.
While headphones, earbuds, and music venues have been recognized as sources of potentially unsafe sound levels, relatively little attention has been paid to the effects of video games, including e-sports, on hearing loss, say the researchers.
WHAT!?
Jokes on them! I don’t even need to worry about video games doing it to me. I’ve already got some minor hearing loss in one ear from a history of childhood ear infections. That, and my other ear is probably gonna end up with hearing loss from how loud I listen to music. Games ain’t got nothing on my music listening habit!
HUH, WHAT DID YOU SAY?
CounterStrike and all it’s variations was always nuts with this to me, ‘I have the voltume up to hear the footsteps bro’ -KACHOW- “BUT THE HOUSE IS SHAKING” ‘yeah this noob has an AWP, so of course I also have an mmhph’ -THE AUDIENCE IS NOW DEEEF-
It would be nice if there was a pre-game audio slider like some games have brightness sliders.
I have Windows volume mixer open all the time. I have developed a habit of pulling the volume down to 10-15% on every new window/app that I open because I hate sudden unstoppable loudness.
Imagine if you could do it for the entire system!
I’ve had tinnitus since my earliest memories. Will I get tinnitus on my tinnitus? Tinnitus squared?
What a dumbass click bait headline.
Has less to do with video games, and more to do with how loudly people are listening to them.
Why is this receiving such hate? I’m one of those affected, and it would make sense that video games were a huge reason why I have such bad ringing in my ears. It should absolutely be taught that playing video games runs the same risks as going to a concert, ear buds, headphones.
I’m confident we have all went to play a game, and not realized that our headset volume had been set to max. Definitely a personal feeling, but I wish someone had said maybe pay better attention before playing video games.
Because the issue isn’t the video games fault. Any gamer in danger of damaging their hearing from playing games, is likely in danger of the same damage from listening to music or talking on the phone at high volume, also.
Reasonable people can already figure out that listening to anything too loud is bad for their hearing. This article is a nothing burger, and the title uses fear-mongering/hate bait to get you to read it.
I am glad it is so obvious to you, however I am still thankful that articles like these get a chance to reach those who are unaware.
Because its not a fear monger, it is simply true for anyone unaware.
I can’t even begin to imagine how a person that is capable of reading and comprehending the article as well as hearing sounds would be unaware that LOUD SOUNDS HURT EARS.
Maybe read the actual article then. I say this in a dickish tone, because it is not “simply loud noises” and it makes everyone else sound like an idiot in comparison to you.
I have read the article. It doesn’t suggest that the games themselves are using sounds too loud, only that many gamers listen to them at higher than safe volumes.
Yes, exactly because it is not obvious that this will cause damage to their ears. I’m sorry, im hungry, but what are you trying to argue if you just agreed with me? It is not a hate/fear mongering article if its point is to bring attention to those unaware.
I’m not sure if the original was edited, or if im absolutely bonkers but I swore you used the words hate/fearmongering and not dumbass.
