With a lot of people using Ipods Mp3 player, do you think they will need hearing aids in future?

I see all these people with ear plugs in ears, and some up so loud that I can hear them. I think I should invest in some hearing aide stock, because in 20 to 30 years, people are going to be buying them like crazy after ruining their hearing. I think it would be a lucrative investment. What do others think?

As a hearing professional, I think this is a bogus argument. I almost wish I could say yes, so I could have a nice lucrative retirement, but I don't think the numbers will be all that different in the future as they are today.

Most of my current patients were born in the 20s-40s. Therefore they lived through several noisy wars, including WWII. Many were drafted at some point into the service, where they paid very little attention to ear protection when firing guns and other very noisy weapons. Many of them worked in noisy factories before hearing protection was offered or made compulsory.

So even if we assume that iPods are as damaging to the ears as warfare, guns, factories, and other industrial noises, this does not mean I am going to be fitting more hearing aids in the future. Also if I were given the choice of wearing an iPod versus some of the noise my patients were exposed to back in the 'old days' I'd take the iPod any time.

The only thing that may work in my favor is that young people are not going to be so freaked out by technology. Modern hearing aids are extremely high tech, and I can only imagine how far advanced they will be 30 years from now. They are already experimenting with blue tooth technology in hearing aids. In 30 years, a hearing aid will probably interface with all kinds of technology allowing a person to hear, listen to a futuristic iPod that transmits directly to the hearing aids without head phones, use the telephone without touching it. Heck, it will probably allow you to have a two way conversation with your computer.

So I think the future is probably pretty bright for hearing aids. The only fly in the ointment is if they can come up with a medical cure for deafness. It would have to be a super advanced method of forcing the cochlea to regrow parts of itself, but if they could do that, hearing aids would be obsolete.

I agree, people need to learn how to turn down their music when they use headphones

I suppose, but....people were saying this this 20 years ago about Walkmans. Mp3 players are relatively new, but headphones have been around for ages.

lol, unfortunately, yes.
My wonderful ex-boyfriend lost his hearing last year, in one ear, and he's only 23. He's a great person, and I love him dearly; he's not like the typical brat attached to an IPod. But he listened to too much music at a loud volume in High School/ College.
The worst of it is that he also has tinnitis, so that while he can't hear from one ear, he also can't get complete silence from the buzzing.

As the respondent Rob stated, earphones have been around for quite a long time- only the device they are plugged into has changed.
It appears to me that if hearing damage was a result of this then our elders would have required hearing aids long before they lost their hearing naturally as a result of age.
Or have we forgotten about the previous generation's obsession with loud music?
If I recall correctly, it nearly rivaled our own.
Or did they attend Woodstock with earplugs?
True, excessively loud music can cause hearing damage but I think it's exaggerated.
I'm pretty sure the generation that attended Beetle's concerts weren't wearing earmuffs. Nor were those who followed the Monkeys.
I also have not seen a large number of the "Hair-band" enthusiasts from the early 80's walking around with hearing aids either.
I believe that this is a noxious fallacy promoted by ignorant people who believe everything they hear.