How many people use subtitles

Bernard speaks very slowly in Westworld , yet I hear very little. The problem is more acute. Maybe the problem is our ears.

Except mine, I dare say, are not. I protect them from the oontz-oontz of so-called music, along with any other unwelcome invasions; earbuds have been pressed into their softness maybe three times. Hearing something so small enlarges your soul. When I turn on those words, my body untenses.

Not even the most inconsequential bit of throwaway dialog is safe from the rigorous, trustworthy pen of closed captioning. At last, I can hear everything. Essential for deaf people and English language learners, and scientifically shown to promote reading comprehension and retention, subtitles have only recently become essential for many TV watchers, period. Anything wrong with this? At all. My anecdata turns up no gender preferences. Couples seem overrepresented, presumably because one influences the other.

But uh, why bother making excuses? To those others have added: you can watch at low volume, you can clean or eat or otherwise make general ruckus while watching.

Inside the screen, diegetic minutiae—passerby conversations, a snippet of a TV news story—takes on new clarity, giving shape to the world of a story. The fuzziness solidifies, control overlaying chaos. Thus the modern condition asserts itself. If there is something we can know, we do everything in our power to know it, regardless of our actual level of investment.

In addition, more and more shows feature heavy accents that can be hard to understand. For these reasons and more, closed captions could improve comprehension for all viewers. Why should you transcribe and caption your videos? For example, in a study conducted by 3Play Media and Oregon State University Ecampus Research Group on student use and perception of closed captions, we found that students not reporting disabilities use captions almost as frequently as students reporting disabilities.

When asked why captions are helpful, respondents expressed strong agreement that captions help students focus, retain information, and comprehend academic material. Another paper published in in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences by Morton Ann Gernsbacher also found corroborating evidence, citing over empirical studies. For example, in a Washington Post article by Lauren Michele Jackson , the writer discusses using captions to better understand strong accents, such as those featured in Games of Thrones.

My hearing ability, I soon realized, had made me lazy. I took for granted a breadth of comprehension I never possessed. Here are just a few examples of the benefits of subtitles :. Social shares can play a role, too. And appealing to more people helps boost visits and reduce bounce rates. That can make a big difference in how many people find your website, watch your video, and engage with your content.

When you get started, adding subtitles to videos can take a while. Just remember all the benefits above. The premise behind adding subtitles to your videos is simple. Fortunately, subtitling apps will help you out with this. We went through the entire subtitling process in our walkthrough of how to add subtitles to MP4s. If you want to learn how to add subtitles to your videos, check out the tutorial how-to video included!

Dann is a long-time freelance writer with an interest in the intersection between technology and business. If there's a way to use technology to get more done in less time, he wants to hear about it. After a stint in the marketing and publishing world, he moved to covering these topics on a freelance basis and hasn't looked back.

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Dann Albright Content and marketing writer, specializes in the intersection of technology and business. Video Production Grow. How to Add Subtitles to Your Videos? What did you do wrong?