A question for people who listen to music everyday...

[Chiharo]

Are you afraid of losing or damaging your hearing at all?

I'm the type of person who HAS to listen to music every day, or else I'd go mad.
And I always set my iphone/ipod to the volume that I'm comfortable with (which means the volume is not too loud but neither too silent).

But still, I tend to listen to music for a long period of time. No matter if it's just one or two hours respectively, or while sitting in front of my laptop for 4-5 hours.

And I'm worried about my hearing like hell. Even if I'm only 16, I'm so afraid of losing it. That's why I set some limits to myself, but I often break them. It feels like an addiction that you cannot break from and as a result it damages you.

Sometimes when I listen to music I can feel pain in my ears, and that's immediately where I turn off my iphone. But I'm still so worried, if I continue like this, what will my hearing be like in few years from now? Will I be deaf at 30, or even younger?

Hell, you can take away my eyes, legs, arms, any part of my body, but please just NOT my hearing!

And also, I go to this crazy school where we have to go every week and work in a VERY LOUD factory without any ear protection and it's really bothering me. And while I'm there working for 6 hours I listen to my ipod non-stop on a very high volume because otherwise I wouldn't be able to hear the song at all. Which is even worse. (now you tell me that we have passed through the time of slavery :/ But that's another story...)

I wanted to know what do you guys think and is anyone having the same problem as me?

Sorry if something like this has been already discussed, but I'd like to open the discussion again.