Subtitles, anyone?

Do you watch TV with the subtitles (closed captions) on? I recently read an article in THE ATLANTIC that was very interesting!

My hubby and I watch TV with subtitles when they’re available. It started with foreign films, of course, because if you don’t speak Korean, you’re not going to understand the language being spoken in a Korean movie. Then we used it when we watched streaming movies from ACORN, because sometimes those Welsh and Irish and Scottish accents are a little hard for us to understand. Now we use subtitles whenever we can–even with American TV. Why?

I was beginning to quietly fear that I was losing my hearing, but I could still hear everything else with no problem. Then I discovered that there are real reasons for why I’m finding TV so hard to hear.

Personally, I suspect that people have forgotten how to enunciate–actors used to take pride in pronouncing words carefully, but these days actors seem to value “normal speech,” and normal speech is very lazy. Instead of saying, “Did you eat?” we ask, “Jeet?” See what I mean?

But there’s another reason for why we’re using subtitles. I learned that broadcast TV channels used to mix sounds so that the dialogue was always the loudest element–but with the rise of so many steaming channels, some channels are mixing the sound in a “flat” way so that dialogue often gets swallowed up by music, sound effects, etc.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that commercials are always louder than the show you’re watching (perhaps so you can hear them when you leave for the kitchen?). Lately we’ve noticed that the music is often louder than the dialogue–so we really NEED the subtitles to hear what’s being said. Apparently this drives some movie people crazy, because we’re not watching the actors’ expressions and what not, but I can read and watch actors at the same time. In fact, usually when I’m watching TV, I’m also sewing or checking emails or playing a game on my iPad. Aren’t we all?

So–are you using subtitles when you watch TV? If not, have you tried it? You might discover a lot that you’ve been missing!