As a 19 year old with diagnosed tinnitus I cannot agree more with what you say. It really does have a large impact on your life and the sad thing is it is so easily avoided.
I used to be one of those people who would buy the cheapest ear buds they could find and turn my iPod up all the way and then replace them every 2 weeks when they broke, but now I see the damage I did to my hearing doing that.