Video gamers worldwide may be risking irreversible hearing loss and/or tinnitus ( medicalxpress.com )

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.

BilboBargains ,

Noise cancelling headphones give me tinnitus but it's totally worth it to live without noise.

tb_ ,
@tb_@lemmy.world avatar

You'd take no crowd noises over a constant ringing no matter how silent everything else gets?

Please take me tinnitus

BilboBargains ,

I don't hear any ringing when I wear the headphones, it's only quiet times that it's noticeable. My motivation is largely due to ADHD, I'm more sensitive to noise than average and it's a major source of distraction for me. Open offices in particular are horrible for productivity. Driving is also way less fatiguing without road noise.

tb_ ,
@tb_@lemmy.world avatar

Then our experiences in life have been different

BilboBargains ,

The feeling of being removed from a noisy environment is quite blissful. Like slaking a thirst, it's immediately satisfying.

CultHero ,

No worries for me, I've had tinnitus for over 40 years, pretty sure it's neurological for me, not hearing related.

popekingjoe ,
@popekingjoe@lemmy.world avatar

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. 😎

LoremIpsumGenerator ,

Huh, What?!

-Artillery men, Rock/Metal bands

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

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.

Zoot , (edited )
@Zoot@reddthat.com avatar

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.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

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.

Zoot ,
@Zoot@reddthat.com avatar

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.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

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.

Zoot ,
@Zoot@reddthat.com avatar

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.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

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.

Zoot , (edited )
@Zoot@reddthat.com avatar

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.

CoggyMcFee ,

I think what they are trying to say is, how can it be that a person knows about and understands that loud sounds in every other context can damage your hearing, and yet never realized that loud sounds in video games are bad in the same way as everything else

Zoot ,
@Zoot@reddthat.com avatar

I would say that the article points out is isn't so obvious, and therefore should be brought to more peoples attention. I guess I'm reading into it too much. And also too dumb to realize growing up that yeah, gaming was just as bad as going to aconcert.

quams69 ,

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.

r00ty ,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

I've had tinnitus since my earliest memories. Will I get tinnitus on my tinnitus? Tinnitus squared?

webadict ,

It might alloy into bronzitus if you're not careful.

Dvixen ,
@Dvixen@lemmy.world avatar

Multi tonal tinnitus is a real thing.

Source: My right ear has two tones, and the left ear has different from the right two.

r00ty ,
@r00ty@kbin.life avatar

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.

HerrBeter ,

I played video games for 22 years: no hearing loss

Practiced bagpipes indoor, big room, a few times: like 30dB hearing loss.

Idk

TonyTonyChopper ,
@TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz avatar

bagpipes are the loudest thing I've ever experienced, those things are a silent killer

EffortlessEffluvium ,

Now think of the damage you could’ve caused the rest of us!

We’re saved!

finthechat ,

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.

AlexisFR ,
@AlexisFR@jlai.lu avatar

Imagine if you could do it for the entire system!

finthechat ,

Lol. I still want my loudness ceiling to be loud, which is why I leave my speakers/headphones/system volume turned up. However, I like it when it's on my terms, so I manually turn down specific programs.

MaxVoltage ,
@MaxVoltage@lemmy.world avatar

Mate i just mute and make the sounds in my head

Jayb151 ,

Check an app called ear trumpet. It gives you way finer control over the volume of everything

juicebox ,
@juicebox@kbin.social avatar

It would be nice if there was a pre-game audio slider like some games have brightness sliders.

Linssiili ,

Like volume mixer in windows?

Feathercrown ,

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).

Inductor ,

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.

Feathercrown ,

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 >:(

Shurimal ,

Volume sliders never sound linear to me

Ironically that is because (with very few exceptions) every application from OS-s to streaming service webapps to games to mediaplayers uses linear volume slider. Human hearing is logarithmic.

The way typical volume slider works is multiplying the audio sample values with a coefficient that is ≤1. Ie, if you set volume to 50% the input is multiplied by 0.5 and as a result the signal voltage level on the analog output to your headphone or loudspeaker drivers is halved. The kicker—halving the voltage is just 6 dB less volume. This is why if you have sensitive headphones (or big, powerful speakers) you find that you have to keep the volume slider in your OS at 10% or even lower to not blast your ears off. And why the upper half of volume sliders is completely useless.

I have an unconventional speaker setup that makes classical analog volume control completely impractical. Since said setup has the maximum sound pressure level output of around 110 dB at full scale digital input, I have to keep the OS volume slider at 30% and in-app volume sliders at around 20%, resulting the total multiplier of 0.06 (or about -26dB full scale) to have comfortable volume levels. Only exception is Elite: Dangerous; with sound set to full dynamic range I can keep the main volume slider at maximum and enjoy glorious dynamics. Youtube is also surprisingly reasonable, probably because they normalize to -14dB LUTS or something similar.

Feathercrown ,

I wonder if linux has a logarithmic sound driver... might tempt me to the dark side!

FunkyMonk ,

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-

yamanii ,
@yamanii@lemmy.world avatar

One of the reasons I stopped playing, does 2 have a loudness range option? Once I discovered that option on my tv I never got jumpscared by an explosion ever again just because I had the volume up to listen to a conversation.

TonyTonyChopper ,
@TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz avatar

Windows has a compression mode called Loudness Equalization built in

Shurimal ,

As it should be

The first HL had surprisingly good sound with great dunamic range. HL2 felt wimpy, guns never had the same oomph to them.

Dvixen ,
@Dvixen@lemmy.world avatar

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.

2deck ,
@2deck@lemmy.world avatar

Sorry to hear that

Can you drown out the tinnitus with more volume?

Dvixen ,
@Dvixen@lemmy.world avatar

Not as a rule, no. I end up with a bigger headache and more ringing.

Sabre363 ,

HUH, WHAT DID YOU SAY?

darthelmet ,

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?

Zorque ,

Because it's not what people want. They want loud, because louder is considered better in social consciousness. That has been the trend for decades.

ApathyTree ,
@ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

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.

TomSelleck ,

Fuckin great game.

verysoft , (edited )

Just laziness or ignorance, I made a game and set the volume to 30% by default (it was a bit quiet for my setup), there were no loud splash screens, just some music on the menu - why that is so difficult for developers to do, I don't understand.

It's also an extra crime when they force an unskippable cutscene on you or start a tutorial before you can even access the options screen. The very first screen you should get, should be the fucking options.

BiggestBulb ,
@BiggestBulb@kbin.run avatar

GeminiTay streamed Stardew Valley and this was one of her main complaints. The menu never lets you adjust the sound and the game starts with an unskippable scene.

verysoft ,

Yup its stupid af. I can adjust my game volume on the fly with the setup I have, so it's always nice to turn that shit down or mute it when I start up a game, but the fact I have to is insane.

You could prep volume mixer too, and tab out when the game launches to turn it down. Or developers could just not put loud splash/logo screens at max volume.

darthelmet ,

Agreed. The funny thing is some games go the other way around but still kind of get it wrong: Games where the options are a part of a launcher, so you don't actually get to experience your changes as you make them. I guess that's still better than just throwing you into a loud cutscene on startup though.

But seriously. When the game loads, I want the sound to be set to as low as possible, then just give me a slider that plays a sample sound that I can increase until it's right.

cyberpunk007 ,

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.

AlexisFR ,
@AlexisFR@jlai.lu avatar

Most games get it right, didbyou try lowering the global system volume down? Mines only at 20%.

darthelmet ,

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.

Zangoose ,

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.

Some_Dumb_Goat ,

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

snugglesthefalse ,

Yeah I hate this, even with windows at like 25% most games are still defaulting to too loud

teamevil ,

Tinnitus sucks ass.... seriously take care of your hearing.

Zellith ,

Can confirm. Like.. guys.. it's bad. You can definitely end up having dark thoughts. Don't fuck around. Use ear protection where needed, and check your volume settings!

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