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Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

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Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#91

Post by Entinel »

bscphil wrote: post #83
perrygeo wrote: post #45

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…

> [CC] complements the audio & visual nicely. I don't have any evidence for this but I'd wager that plot synthesis and comprehension of television shows is greatly improved by CC 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 a…

I grew up watching anime with subs and at a certain point it just became natural to have subtitles on even when the content is in English.

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#92

Post by bilekas »

simonw wrote: post #78

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…

This is something I might do with a movie I love and could act in, actually I used to do it with DVD's that offered it.

But as a 'go to', that's like reading the comments before the article.

Edit: Not exactly the same : I was referring to "Directors commentary" audio tracks.

Edit 2: I'm a bit worried you need the environment and expressions explained to you...

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#93

Post by lloeki »

captainbland wrote: post #51

I started using them for two reasons: at one place we were living, there was a lot of ambient noise which would sometimes periodically drown out the sound which can make you miss key pieces of dialogue. It's also the case that the large amount of dynamic range in many modern shows/films means that for the loud sounds to be at a reasonable volume, some speech gets almost inaudibly quiet so subtitles help with that.

Seconding that. Also some movies/shows have potent actors yet somehow they have terrible delivery^, but the subs are good. In that case I either lower volume (and mentally shut away voices) or outright turn sound off and use the power of imagination^^.

^ also applies to bad dubbing + original audio not available

^^ seems to be an increasingly rare skill these days

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#94

Post by JALTU »

I sort of doubt there's really a so-called generational gap. I suspect it's just the usual click bait.

I'm sorry I don't have the link but there actually was an online lament by professional sound crews for film/TV that I read a few months back. Sound is apparently compromised by the usual suspects: creative egos, competing priorities, actors' failure to enunciate clearly, and failure to appreciate the technical nature of audio recording. In some cases, the director instructs the sound crew to "capture" the performance after the scene is shot. I've never worked on a set before so I'll leave it at that and say that as an older person, I love CC and use it all the time whether I'm other-tasking or not!

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#95

Post by silisili »

jschveibinz wrote: post #11

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…

> Dialects and accents seem to be more prevalent in content

This is why they are always on in our house. I think people who understand fine take for granted how hard accents can be.

My wife is ESL. She understands me fine, and the 'neutral tv accent.' She can't understand a word my father says(Appalachian accent). Can't understand British people, Boston accents, etc. She's learning, slowly, but I've never even thought about how amazing it is we're able to process all the different ways people speak, rather seamlessly.

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#96

Post by ecshafer »

I started using captions as a teen because of watching anime, and then I started doing it with normal tv. I am not in my 20s but I think a big part of it is that most tv shows and movies have become absolutely impossible to hear what they are saying. I think speakers on TVs have gotten really bad with the transition to flat screen, and even with a sound system the mixing of audio has gotten really bad. Music and sound effects go over the dialogue too much. Movie theaters its fine, so I am not sure what they are doing differently.

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#98

Post by CoastalCoder »

Entinel wrote: post #91
bscphil wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [CC] complements the audio & visual nicely. I don't have any evidence for this but I'd wager that plot synthesis and comprehension of television shows is greatly improved by CC 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 a…

I grew up watching anime with subs and at a certain point it just became natural to have subtitles on even when the content is in English.

For the longest time I couldn't follow anime with subtitles, it kept me from watching the action.

I think practice helped, but so did reducing the size of the video frame. Turns out having the whole frame in my field of view was a big deal.

Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?

#99

Post by lofatdairy »

ecshafer wrote: post #96

I started using captions as a teen because of watching anime, and then I started doing it with normal tv. I am not in my 20s but I think a big part of it is that most tv shows and movies have become absolutely impossible to hear what they are saying. I think speakers on TVs have gotten really bad with the transition to flat screen, and even with a sound system the mixing of audio has gotten really bad. Music and soun…

Maybe spatially separating where sound is coming from helps? Or perhaps not having to overlay multiple audio tracks on a single speaker output allows for higher fidelity due to better dynamic range.

In any case I think my anime watching has resulted in a slight dislike for CC if only because I find it all too easy to accidentally only read, and actually the action going on. I only realized this when I go back and rewatched some old youtube clips and found myself not remembering the actual animation and physical comedy.

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