Why is it so hard to hear dialogue in modern TV shows and movies?
Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?
101–110 of 738 posts
Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?
#102The 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…
I was without my glasses and contacts for a day and I tried this out. It helped a lot, and was actually a nice experience. It wasn't miserable like I assumed it would be.
Wound up turning it off when I could see clearly, though. It felt strange to hear about what was happening in a scene just as I watched it happen.
Definitely could see it being useful while multitasking, though. I want to try that out at some point.
Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?
#103Why don't cinemas have them then? It's because people are listening to shows through terrible audio setups by default
Don’t most cinemas have a personal screen with captions available on request?
Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?
#104The 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…
> I love that we're discovering that features invented for "accessibility" are appreciated by many people …
These are called curb cuts, which were intended to help people who use wheelchairs, but we’re quickly appreciated by moms with strollers.
Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?
#105The 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…
I agree, but also find it surprising that younger generations are more focused on what they are watching. I'm a background watcher for sure, and this trend with CC suggests to me that the whole "2nd screen" thing isn't playing with the younger generation. Any insights as to why that may be? To give more context, I was always a "background media" person. Even as a kid I'd draw while in front of the TV, I was never a f…
Because the younger generation is watching Netflix on their phones. There is no second screen phenomenon because there is no second screen.
Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?
#106Tangentially: 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.
Is it possible that you’re hitting a keyboard shortcut by accident? IIRC YouTube turns on captions if you ever press the “c” key, which I definitely do by accident once in a while.
Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?
#107ESL here. Not so much for TikTok videos but I turn on subtitles when movie dialog is in some English dialect that is different from the standard North American one. I could not figure out 40% of what is happening in “No country for old men”. British period dramas are sometimes hard too.
Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?
#108I was a bartender for a long time and I just got so used to having the closed captioning on so I could watch tv that I cannot engage myself in any video media any more without closed captioning on
Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?
#109I think that when you spend a lot of time reading, the cognitive load becomes almost free.
On the contrary, listening is difficult, especially when people don't talk very well or loud enough, or with foreign accents.
Combining reading and listening is a way to simply reduce the cognitive load.
Re: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed captions turned on?
#110The 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…
As non english-native speaker I watched so much stuff with captions it's second nature for me.
But for any language that I understand well I only turn them on when the accent is so thick I can't get what the actors are saying.
Similarly I always turn on all subtitles in video games because it's easy to miss something if say ingame explosion or other sound effect covers the voice, or it is just too silent (say NPC talking that's a bit far)
But the article claim it helps multitasking seems weird - how having to look at screen would help when multitasking?