When it comes to making one's way to work, more and more people spend at least an hour each direction. This means that there are long stretches of time to kill just waiting to arrive at work, and for many Americans, these stretches are a time to sit back and listen to music or putter on a Smartphone. And while someone who is fortunate enough to be riding in the quiet car of an Amtrak train or making a commute somewhere without a noisy environment all around doesn't need to crank up the volume on headphones, countless other commuters engage in daily activities that actually tend to speed up hearing loss.
The trouble is that most people do not realize this, and after the damage has been done is the only time when the troubles and shortcomings become apparent. The reason for this is the fact that hearing loss is a gradual process most of the time, especially in regards to constant exposure to louder levels of noise. People tend to simply turn the volume up to compensate for the trouble that might be apparent, and then forget about whether or not it was easy to make out particular sounds. Likewise, those who are in particularly loud subway cars or blaring songs from car stereos are going to be trying to compensate for the noise levels around, meaning that it is sometimes possible to not even be aware of how loud things are to begin with.
Those in cities are more likely to be dealing with hearing loss as a result of commuting, because cities are generally louder places. Anyone trekking in from the suburbs on a train knows that the train itself is noisy, as are many of the people on the same car. So putting in a pair of earbud headphones is not a productive way to drown out the surrounding sounds, yet countless people try this technique every day. The result is usually tinny blasts of sound coming from everyone in a train car, which is just another thing for people to try to drown out by turning up their own volume.
While it might not sound fun to suffer through an hour-long commute in silence, this is more often than not the best option for one's ears. Because there are so many other noises going on, unless someone on a train has invested in a nice pair of noise-canceling headphones, the racket level is going to be what causes the trouble. And for this reason, it makes more sense to stick with the paper or an app on an iPhone, and to save the music listening for at home, when it's actually feasible.
Likewise, those driving to and from work every day are also not immune to trouble with hearing. After all, blasting the radio on the way to work or on the way home is another surefire way to wear down one's hearing. And the trouble with this is often people don't realize how loud music is to begin with, so they keep turning it up. The best bet is to keep the volume knob at 12 o'clock on the dial, and try to not blast songs unless it is absolutely necessary to sing along!
