Why Everyone Is Watching TV With Closed Captioning On These Days

Jason Kottke: A few months ago I noticed that several friends (who speak English and aren't deaf) routinely watch TV and movies with closed captions and subtitles on. I asked about this on Twitter and the resulting thread was fascinating. Turns out many of you watch TV this way for all kinds of different reasons -- to follow complex dialog in foreign or otherwise difficult accents, some folks better retain information while reading, keeping the sound down so as not to wake sleeping children in tight living spaces, and lots of people who aren't deaf find listening difficult for many reasons (some have trouble listening to dialogue when thereâ(TM)s any sort of non-ambient noise in the background).

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