Unfortunately, what may seem like a harmless method of leisure and enjoyment can actually lead to harmful long-term negative effects on personal health.

The number of people who use portable music players has been rising at a rapid rate, and the amount of time people spend listening to their music with ear buds has been increasing as well, according to research conducted by many audiologists today, including the Bay Area Audiology Group, located in San Francisco.

"I listen to my MP3 player pretty often, usually at school during my prep or during class when we're allowed to," senior Ran Schwartz said. "I also use it when I'm out running, or sometimes at home when I need to block out other things to concentrate on my homework."

Surveys have shown that listening to music with earphones is no longer just an activity done during a quick jog but rather something people do for long periods throughout the day.

Many say that the lightweight portable music players have made it easier for them to listen to music more often. However, repeated exposure to high volumes is detrimental to the hair cells in the inner ear, which are key for hearing.

"I listen to my music a lot, but I never thought that I could possibly cause damange to my hearing because I listen with my earphones so often," senior Johnathan Niv said.

A number of Paly students feel that hearing loss is unavoidable concerning the use of portable music players and earphones on a regular basis.

Listening to music in general is a popular activity for Paly students and many other teens in the nation.

"I figured listening to music all the time couldn't be completely healthy for my ears," senior Ben Beitler said. "But playing piccolo isn't good for my ears either, and I'm not exactly going to quit listening to my music and playing my piccolo."

Junior Marty Hu agrees with Beitler.

"Listening to music is something pretty routine for people, so I don't think a bunch of statistics is going to get them to kick the habit all of a sudden," Hu said.

Some who are informed of the risks of using earphones are skeptical that significant damage is possible, disregarding recent news from CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle which say that minimizing earphone use and lowering volume levels on portable music players is critical to preventing severe hearing problems.

"I've read the reports that say listening to music with earphones at a certain volume can be unhealthy," sophomore Carly Weinstein said. "I never really took it seriously because I never saw any difficulties in my hearing, even though I regularly use my iPod at a pretty high volume."

In addition, numerous students have even resorted to purchasing special earphones in order to block out any other background noise so that they can listen to louder and better-sounding music.

"I actually don't listen to my music at that loud of a volume, though," senior David Protter said. "I don't think I'm really causing that much damage."

This is a common misconception, as these special ear buds can actually cause damage, even if the volume is turned down, since ear buds have much more power than the everyday set of headphones.

"Though listening to music too loudly with ear buds can be damaging to one's hearing, the volume at which people listen to their music at is generally subjective," Jody Winzelberg, Doctor of Audiology at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford said. "Because ear buds attach directly to the ears, decreasing the distance between the eardrum and the actual music, people are causing damage to their ears by listening to music at the same volume as if they were listening to headphones or from a stereo speaker. The closer the ear bud is to your inner ear, the more power you get, so the volume of music heard with headphones is much different from the volume of music heard using ear buds."

Furthermore, much research has shown a recent growing trend of noise-induced hearing loss, especially among young teens, due to exposure to loud volumes for long periods of time. They have lost the ability to hear higher frequencies, which can cause difficulty in following conversations when there is ambient noise.

In spite of this, Beitler does not blame his music volume for these problems.

"I definitely have problems trying to hear what people say in noisy places," Beitler said. "I don't think it was mainly because I listen to my portable music player often, though."

According to Winzelberg, most people do not pay attention to the fact that they have their music playing loudly until they hear a ringing in their ears, which signifies that a certain extent of damage has been done to their eardrums.

Though it is a common habit for many teens today to ignore what research has shown to be destructive to their health, it is crucial that students use caution in just how loud they blast their music.

Even if hearing problems do not seem so prevalent now, they can arise in the future if students are not careful.

"It is important for a listener to be comfortable with the volume of their music," Winzelberg said. "If people can hear your music, and you can't hear your surroundings, it is too loud. If you experience changes in your hearing after listening to music, it is definitely too loud."

From Jennifer Tran