It’s Friday night, and my family and I are engaged in that rarest of pastimes – watching a community show. We started the newest episode of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and made sure to activate the subtitles. Nobody in our house has hearing problems. So, why do we do that?
Clearly, we are not the only ones in our habits. In 2020, the UK Communications Office released the results of a study that found that 18% of the population uses closed captions regularly – but only 20% of those viewers had hearing problems.
Home subtitles have been around for almost fifty years – the first program to feature it was Julia Child’s “The French Chef” in 1972. In the beginning, the service was considered of interest only to non-listening viewers, who soon needed a special device to access it. Over time, subtitling technology has been incorporated into televisions and the past decade has brought further refinement of accessibility requirements for streaming services. It didn’t take long for the broader subtitling applications to become evident.
Dr. Richard Purcell, a UK physician and one of the founders of the captioning company Caption.Ed, sees his company as a service for people “with and without hearing loss to improve their interactions with the media”. As he explains, “There is a lot of evidence that shows that, for a wide range of participants, subtitles can improve the viewer’s understanding and retention of information. There is also evidence to suggest that subtitles can improve a viewer’s ability to make inferences. and define words, identifying emotions from media sources. ”
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Therefore, it is not new that activating subtitles and integrating text with speech can help viewers who are learning a new language. Likewise, it can be useful for children and adults to promote reading skills, making it an important tool to face the current moment. As comedian actor Stephen Fry said in a recent video called “Turn on the Subtitles”, “the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that some children took a step back from literacy,” he tells us, “which is a concern and a tragedy. “Introducing reading to TV viewing is a painless way of trying to move the needle. And by providing deeper contextual clues, subtitles can also help other types of viewers.
“People with illnesses like Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder and Mild Cognitive Impairment can find higher levels of involvement and pleasure using captions,” said Dr. Puja Uppal of the Think Healthy podcast. Captions, she says, “provide an immersive experience that correlates with higher levels of pleasure, satisfaction and retention.”
Writing on Medium in 2018, Accalia Baronets exposed the same case from the perspective of one of these viewers. “I don’t understand body language,” she wrote. “It’s hard to focus on a program when there’s a lot of body language going on that I don’t understand. I have ADHD. Subtitles help me focus on what I’m watching.”
Dr. Stephen Christman, a cognitive psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Toledo, admits some more superficial pleasures from closed captions. “When I watch sporting events, I sometimes turn on closed captions to listen to music while I watch the action,” he says. “Another trivial reason I also participated in is to enable closed captions just to enjoy all the incredible typos that appear.”
But he also notes the potential of subtitles for language learning, as well as other cognitive benefits. “We can read faster than we can talk,” he says. “With subtitles enabled, the viewer can quickly read the current dialogue and then turn their attention to visual action and use their knowledge of what is being said – and what is to be said – to increase their appreciation of the no -verbal / visual aspects of what is happening on the screen. “
In my own home, there are several reasons why we use subtitles. My high school student prefers a lower volume (and, unfortunately, for my middle-aged eyes, darker screen), so subtitles are an effective middle ground. My family likes to comment on the action, speaking directly – and sometimes missing – important dialogues. We live on a city street that explodes intermittently with sirens, music and altercations, and the subtitles allow us to turn off any screams that are happening outside. We also appreciate the additional information that subtitles can provide, such as the name of a song playing in the background or the distinction between [applause] and [polite applause].
But in my house, the appeal of the subtitles goes beyond keeping the peace. Like Wired writer Jason Kehe, who gave his own analysis of the 2018 subtitling boom, I frankly sometimes just don’t understand what the people I’m watching are saying. Whether you’re a fan of Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” films or English reality shows, sometimes you need a little help. The first time a friend recommended “Derry Girls” to me, she said, “Turn on the subtitles. You will need them.” She was right.
There is value outside my four walls as well. As legions of travelers and users of public spaces know – or at least knew when we traveled and used public spaces – subtitles also make it easier to enjoy personal entertainment without potentially interfering with someone else’s airspace. Perhaps watching “Gladiator” on your phone on a crowded train with subtitles enabled isn’t quite the IMAX experience, but it’s an undeniably convenient way to have fun without disturbing the person next to you.
Subtitling has its limitations. It can really destroy a big joke or suspense-filled twist, making it unsuitable for anything that depends on surprise. It can be annoying when it is poorly executed and full of errors. However, for many of us, it is a welcome improvement, regardless of our hearing ability.
Even so, the subtitles I like the most are the ones I still can’t have. I can’t wait to be in a crowded bar again on a weekend afternoon, different sporting events broadcast from each end of the room and, above the noise of the crowd, the comforting flash of descriptive words behind the action.