Week 4 Blog

"Apple sued over hearing loss in iPod buyers" by Dan Goodin
Summary: Someone decided to sue Apple because of the potential hearing loss that its music players can cause when combined with the stock earbuds. According to the article, iPods (the branding given to Apple's personal MP3 players) are not statistically proven at being worse for your ears than any other type of music playing device, but still the devices had to be restricted from sale in France until a built in noise limiter prevented the audio put out to be above 100 decibels (anything above 85 is considered harmful to your hearing)
Analysis / Reflection: Apple may seem blameless in this affair, because users of iPods should be responsible for the volume levels at which they set their mp3 players, and that was certainly my first thoughts when I read the article, but my opinion quickly changed when I remembered my first experience with an iPod. It was so new and pretty and before I knew it, I was happily listening to my kickin' jams as I walked down the streets, wholly unaware of the hearing loss I was causing listening to my iPod at such a level. I was just an innocent sophomore in high school and I never came across a visible warning which told me that I could cause permanent damage to myself (and based on the volume levels at which my peers had their mp3 players, they certainly were unaware of such damage as well) so it wasn't long before I noticed my significantly decreased ability to hear people in conversations. This deeply upset me and I felt victimized. Since then I have done my research and purchased proper noise canceling headphones, but to this day, my hearing is nothing like it once used to be. I do not believe that it was 100% Apple's fault, but I do believe that the forgoing of proper warnings in their minimalistic packaging is something that should be punished