I feel our hearing may get damaged even if we are not wearing earphones because of loud noises from road construction, trains, airplanes, radio/Stereo and TV speakers, fireworks, guns, loud humans and animal screams, loud gas cars and gas lawnmowers.
Some earphones and headphones set to a low or medium volume may help shield some of the harmful loud noises which we hear in our daily life because the earphone or headphone block some of the harmful loud noises from enterimg our ears.
That’s if you crank the volume to a certain level. They don’t automatically damage your ears just by sticking them in, you have to use an acceptable level.