Writing Feature Articles - Step 1 - Lesson 1 | Page 34

Writing Feature Articles - Lesson a
Writing Feature Articles - Handout .. a

Beginner

Name: ______________________________________ Date: ____________________

. a: Feature Articles Packet

(page of

)

To Hear or Not To Hear: You Choose
Young people ignore the danger to their hearing caused by MP3 players, but there is a simple solution
By JT

Tareek Jones, a student at MS421, loves to listen to his MP3 player. He starts listening in the
morning as soon as he gets dressed. He listens while he eats his breakfast and on his way
to school. He often listens during his lunch period and during study hall. Then after school,
he listens again on his way home and while he studies. Altogether, Tareek listens to his MP3
player about 4 hours a day.
Tareek is not unusual. Many teenagers listen to their MP3 players for several hours a day
and they don’t think it is a problem. But there may be a problem, because most teenagers
like to turn up the volume to really hear their music. Some people think that MP3 players will
make teens deaf. But research shows that young people can enjoy their music and keep their
hearing if they listen safely.
Can you hear me?
As it turns out, MP3 players can make you deaf. “The number of kids with
hearing loss is dramatically increasing and the culprit seems to be noise’’, said
Oregon Health & Science University audiologist Billy Martin. Dean Garstecki, a
Northwestern University audiologist and professor, said that some students listen
to music at 110 to 120 decibels. "That's a sound level that's equivalent to the
measures that are made at rock concerts and it's enough to cause hearing loss
after only about an hour and 15 minutes." Many teenagers don’t realize that even
though they can hear now, they will feel the damage in the future.
For some teens, problems are already showing up. A recent study in the journal
Pediatrics found that 61% of teens said they experienced ringing in the ears. This
is an early sign of hearing problems.
What are they thinking?
Survey of MS421 students

Even though this is happening way too much, many kids
are not worrying about it. Tareek Jones loves to listen
to hip hop music. “I like to feel my music in my head. It
needs to be turned up for that to happen.” Tareek is not
different than his peers who are interested in music. A
survey of students at MS421 showed that three-quarters
of them listen to their MP3 players at 80% of maximum

© 2010, Teaching Matters, Inc.

At what percent of maximum volume do
you listen to your MP3 player?
Answer
# of Responses
a) 20%
0
b) 40%
1
c) 60%
5
d) 80%
10
e) 100%
8

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