Topic Analysis This Topic Analysis takes a look at the article Are You Damaging Your Hearing Without Realizing It? (Crain, 2015). The article is about the controversy surrounding headphones causing damage to people's ears without many people realizing it. Author Molly Crain provides evidence and examples of statistical studies showing that overexposure to listening to loud noises for an extended period of time can cause noise-induced hearing loss at any age. It mostly answers questions like, “How do I know if I'm losing my hearing” or “How can I keep my hearing loss from getting worse?” The analysis answers questions through expert evidence work and examples of when and where people may experience hearing loss without even knowing it. Your article raises an important question and is able to explain the problem and provide ways to solve it. Crain addresses four major hypotheses related to hearing loss through testing until those hypotheses are fully satisfied. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, Crain's states that hearing loss begins gradually until overtime from sound exposure causes hearing loss. Crain's states that “hearing loss is often not a dramatic event, but something that accumulates inexorably over time. Some experts believe that it is a very modern behavior – such as the increasing use of earphones to listen to music and films – that could contribute to prematurely aging our hearing. And it is a problem that could affect young people much more than before." Crain supports his claim by providing a quote relating to his statement from Jill Greunwald, a person who teaches hearing loss awareness at Vanderbilt's School of Music. Greunwald is quoted as saying, “Sometimes noise exposure in younger ears, it's only when it starts to couple with age that it starts to grow faster. So it may be that now you just have a little bit of hearing loss and some damage and only in the last few years will this really become a problem.” Through a quote provided by a hearing loss expert, Crain manages to make readers believe what he is writing. It selects a great source and also provides basic information about it. In order to make his arguments, Crain acknowledges many different popular opinions about hearing loss. Crain writes: “The US occupational safety regulators, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and the Association for Occupational Safety and Health, set the standard sound exposure limit at 85 decibels. Music player headphones can reach sound levels of up to 120 decibels. His evidence forces readers to realize that if they listen to music at higher decibel levels than experts suggest, they could be victims of hearing loss. When he mentions the amount of standard decibels, he provides pertinent information that makes his writing even more important. When Crain's mentions other objects that could cause hearing loss such as power tools, jet skis, or guns, he assumes that everyday activities or objects can also cause hearing loss, not just headphones. He is addressing a wider audience when he mentions how other forms of technology can cause hearing loss. It's one thing for people to lose interest in Crain's article if it was just about the risks of headphones.