All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

Remember how Mom always yelled turned down that music? In the days of the boom box the volume was just plain annoying. But now that the soundtrack of our lives goes straight into our ears...it can be downright dangerous.

Some European officials want to force makers of M-P-3 players...like i-pods...to lower default volume settings for a maximum of 80 decibels. That's a little louder than normal conversation ... about the same as the dial tone from a phone. Right now, many players can pump out ear-splitting levels equivalent to a lawn mower...almost as loud as an airplane.

Researchers say listening at that volume for just an hour a day can cause permanent damage after just a few years. In fact, one study found as many as 13 percent of 16 to 19-year-olds already have some hearing loss.

It could take a year or two before these standards are finalized, but Mom may finally get what she wanted ... and a lot of us will still be able to hear her.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

Remember how Mom always yelled, "turn down that music!" In the days of the boom box, the volume was just plain annoying. But now that the soundtrack of our lives goes straight into our ears - it can be downright dangerous.

Some European officials want to force makers of MP3 players, like iPods to lower default volume settings for a maximum of 80 decibels. That's a little louder than normal conversation - about the same as the dial tone from a phone. Right now, many players can pump out ear-splitting levels equivalent to a lawn mower, almost as loud as an airplane.

Researchers say listening at that volume for just an hour a day can cause permanent damage after just a few years. In fact, one study found as many as 13 percent of 16 to 19-year-olds already have some hearing loss.

It could take a year or two before these standards are finalized, but Mom may finally get what she wanted and a lot of us will still be able to hear her.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

These days the iPod gets blamed for everything from hearing loss to overspending on kids. Now it seems the ever-shrinking digital device may be boosting violent crime as well.

Click on the video link to learn more.

Here at "C&C," we operate like an old butter churn: rusty old cogs stirring things up, with a crank on the side.

That self-described crank is our resident chin-scratcher and pad-scribbler, Dick Meyer, who puts his talents to good use every week with his column at CBSNews.com, Against the Grain.

This week, Dick takes on the iPod and people who use it:

Portable devices such as the iPod and the cell phone are dangerous to the mental health of homo sapiens living together in crowded quarters, if not to actual life and limb. They foster rudeness and public narcissism at a time when those vices need no encouragement. Kruger aptly calls it "iPod Oblivion."

Many mobile technologies foster this obliviousness: BlackBerrys, GameBoys, those hideous Bluetooth dealies that jut from your ears like Frankenstein plugs, portable mini-DVD players and cell phones have some tactile, addictive quality that makes people fondle them incessantly.

These devices not only "connect" people, they disconnect them, too. Talking full volume on a phone in a crowded waiting room to your old roommate about his long battle with eczema may connect you to your faraway friend, but it alienates you from the people in the room. Indeed, it signals disrespect to them and their privacy.

Now, it appears these mobile e-tools of Satan provide precisely what many people navigating the outside world want and need: obliviousness. Indeed, young people see it as a basic human right, like free speech and gun-toting.

There's more, much more, and we think it would be worth your while to check it out. Sometimes a little crank can produce something rich.