Pandemic binge watching has been a thing in my life for the past couple of years. We have subscriptions to several streaming services and we have done our share of binge watching different shows. One thing that I have gotten used to using is the closed caption option.

Now I am not hearing impaired (although sometimes I suspect my husband is….) but the closed caption option is a pretty cool feature to turn on. Especially when you are watching shows from other countries like England. Depending upon the dialect it can go from easy to difficult to understand. Some British shows we have watched are pretty hard to decipher but the closed captioning helps immensely.

Closed captioning is a technique used to display text on a television screen by request from the viewer. The “closed” is a reference to the fact that the captions must be “opened” or unlocked by the viewer, in contrast with open captions, which are always on display.  Most televisions available today have this option and it is easy to use.

Sometimes the translation is less than perfect and it makes me laugh. One show we were watching kept displaying “insects chirring” and I suspect they wanted “chirping”. Often the news closed captioning is very inaccurate and I wonder why that is. Are those little fingers behind the tv typing too fast or do they need to listen better?

I do love the option. There are a lot of times it is helpful when someone is watching tv and someone else is doing something else and the tv needs to be muted or lowered in volume. Closed captioning helps not only the deaf and hearing impaired – it helps the average person.

So thank you to those who make closed captioning possible. You make me laugh sometimes with the inaccuracies but I love you.

How about you? Do you use closed captioning? Or do you find it annoying? I would love to hear your comments so don’t forget to leave one and Comment for a Cause – Mountain Laurel Animal Rescue.