81–90 of 738 posts
Tangentially: Youtube really likes to turn CC on randomly on its own, even when it's explicitly disabled. Both in the mobile app and the website.
Tangentially: Youtube really likes to turn CC on randomly on its own, even when it's explicitly disabled. Both in the mobile app and the website.
The fact that there's a claimed generational gap here speaks more to the values of the generations re: passive vs active entertainment. I could also ask: "Why do all these 60-Somethings have the TV on as background noise while doing other tasks?" To me it seems closed-caption usage is correlated with actually paying attention to television consumption. People who have their TV on at all hours, as background entertain…
As you say, you don't have any evidence for this, so I'll just add that my subjective impression is the absolute opposite. I find it impossible to concentrate on what is happening visually on screen in a film when closed captions are on.
I associate CC with the one place I ever see them - at the laundromat, where they are always on because you can't hear the TV clearly above the background noise. Hard to think of a setting where "background entertainment" is a better descriptor.
I also love watching Spanish subtitles to learn the language better. However, I do tend to disable them on YouTube, because they distract and detract from the viewing experience when they are completely unnecessary.
I recently graduated to the next step beyond closed captions: I've started enabling audio descriptions for TV shows too. It's SO interesting. They are generally really well put together. And they often highlight things that I would have missed - mentioning the name of a character who joins a scene who I don't instantly recognize, for example. Even more fun: audio descriptions of the title sequences for a TV show. Thr…
Closed Captions are more available now through settings, great audio text models, exposure of people to foreign language films and shows, etc. The 20-somethings are exposed to it more and adopt to using them. Youtube's closed captions are both a noticeable button and a "c" keyboard shortcut.
TikTok even has caption on by default!
It does.
I guess I figured that as the TikTok aesthetic and never even really thought more than that.
For me it was always that I could never really make out the dialogue much of the time, and with live tv there was no rewinding so CC gave me a second chance if I missed something.
The article mentions but doesn't get into the "audio description" option too. If you haven't ever tried this, it takes a little getting used to, but once you do, it makes multitasking much easier. I strongly recommend giving it a try. During the gaps in speech, a narrator comes on and describes the most important things happening on the screen. I had a gig for awhile actually writing the descriptions for this content…
Come to find out, for whatever reason, it had audio description turned on by default.
As someone who can see and hear fine, I found it rather odd(before learning what it was). But for a vision impaired person, such a thing must be a game changer.
From the article: Because it's harder for them to concentrate. Plays to some stereotypes at least.
This article feels like the next generation of "Millennials are ruining...." much like "Gen Y is ruining..." etc. articles that came before those.
Two reasons from my perspective, other than my ears are getting older: 1. The sound mix has a huge dynamic range now, and lots of action scenes are mixed in with quiet conversation. Set the volume down, and you miss the dialogue. Set the volume up, and you wake up the neighbors. 2. Dialects and accents seem to be more prevalent in content, and CC helps to cut down the cognitive load of “translation” while being enter…
> 1. The sound mix has a huge dynamic range now, and lots of action scenes are mixed in with quiet conversation. Set the volume down, and you miss the dialogue. Set the volume up, and you wake up the neighbors. I was once told, by a salesperson in a TV store that this was essentially "by design" and that the solution they're taught to present is to "buy a soundbar". From his understanding, in the quest to get thinner…
Soundbars have really good margins though, so it's unsurprising that that's the solution they sell!