I’ve loved music ever since I began playing the piano at age six. I sang in the church choir, in a vocal quartet with my three younger brothers and, when I was 13, in my Dad’s dance band. In high school, I had a folk group, and then I put myself through university by playing in a rock band. So when I say I love music, I really mean it.

Thanks to technology – boom boxes, MTV, elaborate home theatres, Walkmans, fabulous car stereos, MP3-laden laptops, subwoofers and surround-sound cinemas – music has played a continuously bigger role in my life. As my constant travelling companion, the iPod has literally changed my quality of life. Music I know and love is now with me everywhere I go. But the downside to this ubiquitous music is that it’s loud and it’s wreaking havoc on my eardrums.

More than 3 million Canadians suffer from hearing loss. It’s the fastest growing chronic disability in the country, according to the Hearing Foundation of Canada. Loud noise is the number one cause of hearing problems among Canadians. And with the soaring popularity of personal music players, young people are particularly at risk. A 1998 study by the Workmen’s Compensation Board of B.C. found that 30 percent of young adults entering the workforce already have hearing loss due to overexposure to noise.

While Canadians of all ages should practise “safe listening,” it’s the kids, in particular, that need to listen up and protect their ears. It takes common sense and willpower since the urge to crank it up is often irresistible. When shopping for speakers at an electronics store, people invariably choose the ones that go to 11. The car beside me at a stoplight this morning was vibrating my car with its trunk-size subwoofer. I can’t imagine what it was doing to the hearing of the occupants.

I know I’ve done damage to my ears by playing in a band and attending scores of rock concerts. My ears are ringing as I write this. My audiologist says I have tinnitus, as do millions of others, including Pete Townshend, who is leading a campaign to raise research money and awareness of the condition.

Today I use all the technology I can to save what hearing I have left. In the office, I use a wireless headset by GN Netcom. I’ve started wearing a Jawbone headset with my cellphone and I use Bose noise-cancelling headphones when using my iPod. Noise-cancelling technology was originally designed for pilots. Tiny microphones in the earcups monitor the outside sound. Electronic wizardry then changes the sound produced by the headphones to cancel out the peripheral noise. For pilots, this helps to ensure they can hear clearly when speaking to each other and to air traffic control. For me, it means making sure I don’t turn up my iPod so loud in order to drown out other sounds.

I’ve also gone to an audiologist for custom-fitted earplugs, which I wear to all music concerts. And when playing in my own band, I use a quasi-earplug/ headphone combination. Made by Shure, these small earphones sit deep in my ear canal and block out most of the music produced by other members of the band. What I hear over the headphones is mostly my vocals and keyboard. These units are de rigueur for rock bands around the world.

A new generation of hearing aids that act in much the same way is about to hit the market. Today’s hearing aids simply amplify sound. Soon they will act more as auditory “gatekeepers,” separating acoustic information from noise. So you could have a normal conversation with someone standing beside a busy highway without having to raise your voice.

In the not-too-distant future, I can see most of us wearing tiny headphones/ hearing aids all the time. They will connect to our music player wirelessly so we can listen to music whenever we want. They’ll automatically switch from player to cellphone if someone calls. And if a sudden loud noise like a fire siren goes off near us, they will ensure we hear it, but not at a level that might harm us.

Sounds good to me. 

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Don Tapscott is a leading international consultant, author and speaker on information technology in society and business and the CEO of strategy company New Paradigm. Visit www.nplc.com or write to him at dtapscott@enroutemag.net.