Earphones

14-11-23 00 / episode: 302

Earphones

Your phones are pretty common these days.

Most of my students have a set of earphones

that they carry with them.

Some of my students have wireless earphones.

In fact I have a pair of wireless earphones too.

Worry Free

Personally, I think they're great.

I can put the earphones on without worry of

having any wires swinging, dangling and catching

things or getting in the way.

On the other hand one has to ask the question: are they safe?

You've got a small electronic device that's right up against your head Touching your head

and it's sending out radio signals

and it's receiving radio signals.

Of course a lot of the scientific studies so far say this is safe.

Comparison

Well they said the same thing about DDT, didn't they?

In case you don't remember what DDT is,

it is an insecticide that they used to kill insects a long time ago.

The problem with DDT was it got inside the animals.

and then other animals ate them

and then birds ate those animals

and the DDT went inside the birds’ bodies.

The DDT killed the insects but it didn't kill the birds.

What it did do was it made the birds lay

eggs with incredibly thin shells.

The shells of the eggs were so thin that

when the bird sat on them they broke

and they couldn't make babies anymore.

I wonder, are we going to find some hidden

bad side to these wireless earphones in the future.?

Maybe they seem good today

but tomorrow we'll discover some hidden bad thing

that's damaging us or something around us

that we really don't want to damage.

Not Good

Another thing I heard was that earphones are

not really good for your ears.

At least the ones that go inside your ears aren't good.

The big earphones that have cushions around them

and go on the outside of your ear

and strap over your head

are supposed to be much better for your ears,

Of course none of these earphones are good

if you turn the volume up too loud.

Impressed

I was quite impressed with

my smartphone a couple years ago

because I turned the volume up

and after a few minutes the smartphone

turned the volume down without asking me.

what it did was

it turned the volume down and then it asked me

is this okay or do you really want it loud?

The message was clear to say that too loud is a little bit

dangerous for my ears over the long term.

Indeed people's ears have been damaged

by listening to loud sounds too close for too long.

If you like to use your earphones, I'm with you.

I like to use earphones.

they're great when I'm studying languages

and they help me to listen much better.

On the other hand there are

hidden dangers to these earphones.

One danger is damaging your ears.

Another danger is not hearing some of the Sounds in your environment, which could lead to accidents.

Be Careful

If you like to wear earphones, please be careful, but feel free to use them when you're listening to my podcast!

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