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 a dumbass click bait headline.
Has less to do with video games, and more to do with how loudly people are listening to them.
I was in middle school when earbuds came out in the early 2000s and I remember the exact same idiot bait news headlines about ipods, I’m sure there’s a 70’s equivalent for headphones. It seems like journalists think the concept of volume is totally alien to humanity, regardless of time period.
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.
Edit: My point is, I’m one of those dumb people who would not have realized that gaming was on the same level as going to a concert. I could’ve used a nice little reality snap that this articles title gives. I only want to provide a second opinion, and hopefully entice someone else to read the article and give it a chance. We all know many people check comments before reading an article.
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.
Turn your volume down, bros.
I SAID TURN THE VOLUME DOWN.
I would if you would stop making that non-stop ringing sound.
(I didn’t realize I had tinnitus until I learned that not everyone hears a high pitch whine 24/7. My brain will tune it out naturally unless it’s really quiet or someone mentions it. Like, now.)
I’ve had a minor tinnitus since I was a kid, which I tend to be able to ignore most of the time because I’m preoccupied with other stuff, but the talks about tinnitus in the Escape From Tarkov community reminded me of the phenomenon, and I’ve been aware of my own tinnitus ever since.
Same as you now - won’t hear it unless I remember about it and can’t turn my mind to something else.
If you don’t notice it every time it’s not tininitus just the normal background noise of the ears functioning.
That’s a fun way of thinking about it but nope. It’s Tinnitus.
Maybe a more mild case but nope, definitely still tinnitus.
I have sensitive hearing towards higher frequency sounds (10khz+) and I’ve always listened at pretty low volumes (like 10-20% on windows for most headphones, even less on my easier-to-drive earbuds). Unfortunately for me I still ended up getting tinnitus but it’s only noticeable when I actively think about it or when I’m trying to sleep.
Seriously though, tinnitus is awful, it makes sleeping so much harder.
I see, thanks for the information!
Well, its a pitch that never really stops and does overlap with some frequencies enough to be annoying.
It’s not that I stop hearing it. It’s just that I have had this for so long my brain comprehends it as “normal” and it doesn’t hold my attention. Part of the psychology(?) is that I grew up around technology. Hearing PC fans or capacitor whine most of the time was normal for me as long as he pitch is steady. The pitch I hear is almost exactly like an old CRT, actually.
I’m jealous! Mine only is tuned out if I listen to something loud, and I don’t enjoy the headaches more than the tinnitus.
How did you get tinnitus, if you want to share?
I think I have always had it to some degree? I began to realize something was off when I was in the Navy and they discovered I was missing some of my high range hearing in weird spots. My work on a flight deck didn’t help either, I am sure. If you haven’t stood close to a turbofan engines at full power, it’s an interesting experience. And loud.
I have always liked extremely loud music and hard hitting bass. That likely contributed as well.
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I’ve had tinnitus for decades, and it SUCKS. I’ve always been careful for my hearing, but after a concussion it arrived and never went away.
I play games with most sounds off. I can’t use headphones, wearing them gives me a migraine no matter the volume.
I’ve had hearing tests, seen a specialist. I have no hearing loss, but I do have misaphonia and tinnitus. The combination is pure hell, there is no respite.
I can’t distinguish voices in chats well enough to follow what’s being said if more than one person is talking. It’s even worse online when I can’t lip read to decode what’s being said.
Project your earholes.
Sorry to hear that
Can you drown out the tinnitus with more volume?
Not as a rule, no. I end up with a bigger headache and more ringing.
Every time I open a new game, the volume is set to the absolute max, which is orders of magnitude louder than any other sound on my computer. When I go to change the sound settings, I usually have to put the slider comically low before it gets to an acceptable volume range. At that point fine tuning it becomes kind of difficult.
Seriously, why can’t most games get volume right?
Best game ever for sounds (in this context), imho, is dysmantle. People have described the sound track as “hikers listening to birds”. Music only happens in specific places, it’s mostly very relaxing/peaceful, and other than that it’s just listening to occasional zombies/turrets, environmental sounds, audio recordings, and breaking stuff.
I always turn the music and sfx way down (voice stays pretty high, sfx about 20% lower, and music very low) so I legit didn’t notice the lack of music for 22 hours of actual play time (out of the about 100 I put into it). But I didn’t change the sound settings at all for it, it was perfect.
Fuckin great game.
Most games get it right, didbyou try lowering the global system volume down? Mines only at 20%.
My system volume is consistently at 8-20% on windows (~30-40% on Linux because it’s a bit quieter usually) but every time I open a game I can’t hear myself think. I always have to turn the volume way lower (~30-50% game volume?) to be a volume I’m comfortable playing at.
Yeah. I usually have my system volume sub 20%. Things like videos, system sounds, voice calls, etc all sound reasonable at that volume. It’s just a lot of games that end up way too loud relatively to that.
Weird, I don’t have this problem. Probably some bullshit manufacturers “gaming mode elite” software package setting.
Some games I play I do find I have to crank dialog up and effects/music down.
On my last pair of headphones I had to set windows to like 2% until I eventually downloaded equalizer apo and set it to make everything like -20db
Yeah I hate this, even with windows at like 25% most games are still defaulting to too loud
Often they are just terribly mixed for headphones too.
Especially shooters where the sfx of the guns are just way too loud for how often they are repeated and in comparison to everything else.
I’d almost like to see a shooter game where everyone has silencers on just for the improved acoustics and not destroying ears without messing with settings (and you don’t want to lower footstep sfx even if you want to lower gunshot sfx and they are rarely separate sliders).
Glad there’s attention on this.
Another area that would probably be wise to study is increased resistance in haptics and possible arthritis or repeated strain injuries long term.
Huh, What?!
-Artillery men, Rock/Metal bands
I played video games for 22 years: no hearing loss
Practiced bagpipes indoor, big room, a few times: like 30dB hearing loss.
Idk
bagpipes are the loudest thing I’ve ever experienced, those things are a silent killer
Now think of the damage you could’ve caused the rest of us!
We’re saved!
Who use earbuds or those big heaphones past like 12 years old lol
Adukts sit in their car in silence
🤨
Airpod type devices should be looked at as well, lots of people are gonna have fucked ears for a long time.
You mean earbuds?
WHAT!?
BOOM HEADSHOT.
Ohh fuckin hacks mate.
No worries for me, I’ve had tinnitus for over 40 years, pretty sure it’s neurological for me, not hearing related.
HUH, WHAT DID YOU SAY?
I’ve had tinnitus since my earliest memories. Will I get tinnitus on my tinnitus? Tinnitus squared?
It might alloy into bronzitus if you’re not careful.
Multi tonal tinnitus is a real thing.
Source: My right ear has two tones, and the left ear has different from the right two.
I have a general tone (or set of tones I guess) which is around equal in both ears usually. But they will sometimes just change for a while, which is extremely jarring since generally I do get used to the constant sound that suddenly being consciously aware of it generally distracts from whatever else is going on. Sometimes that change only happens in one ear, or at least starts in one ear.
Since I’ve had this forever, I actually thought it was normal. Until I guess one day my teacher at school ran out of material, or had a hangover and just wanted us quiet. So, asked us all to be quiet and start to talk about the quietest things people could hear. Others heard a few things I could hear. Sounds in the school building. Then people were talking about hearing traffic on the street nearby and other things I just couldn’t hear at all. At that point I realised, just me hearing this sound then.
I’m probably quite lucky in that the noise floor for me isn’t terrible. Only at night when trying to sleep does it become a problem.
Shit man I’ve been suffering from hearing loss for like 20 years (partially due to infections and the rest is listening to music with headphones at high volumes), and tinnitus for at least 12.
I’m ahead of the curve. 😎
Volume sliders never sound linear to me. I also keep them fairly low. This means that each individual step is surprisingly large in volume difference. I don’t get people who go to max volume-- doesn’t it hurt your ears? My laptop stays on 10-20% and some applications are turned down from that even further (TF2 is comically low).
Are you using Bluetooth headphones?
If so, you might want to look into turning off bluetooth absolute volume. It’s supposed to keep volume syncronised between your bluetooth device and your phone/laptop/etc, but some headphones don’t seem to support it, wich can end up with them setting their internal volume to max.
No, they’re wired, although weirdly they can desync (per-ear!) after a restart until you change the volume again. Thanks for the tip though :)
Actually while I’m here, do you know how to turn off headphone media controls? My headphones don’t have it but when I move my aux cord around windows thinks they’re sending commands and likes to pause my videos >:(
