[subtitle use intensifies]

There’s only so many times you can scream “turn it up!” at the TV before you become an always-on subtitle user.

And while it may be an old-person trope, it's actually the younger generations that are using subtitles the most. Per data from Roku and UK-based captioning company Stagetext, about two-thirds of millennials, as well as 80% of viewers ages 18-24, regularly use subtitles. That’s compared to only 23% of folks ages 56-75.

The Atlantic’s recent deep dive into the subtitle phenomenon provides a few reasons for the disparity:

• TikTok: Most TikTok videos have captions (the app auto-generates them). And the average user of the app spends about two hours on it daily. Meaning, TikTok’s users, 70% of whom are under age 34, are learning that text-with-video is the norm.
• Foreign content: Led by the rise of shows like Squid Game, demand for foreign content (aka content with subtitles) increased to 8% in 2022, up from 6% in 2020.
• The specs: Streaming platforms use a scale called the LKFS (Loudness, K-weighted, relative to full scale) to determine loudness. In HBO’s case – notorious for having poorly mixed audio – the scale used to be anchored to dialogue. That all changed when AT&T bought the streamer in 2018 and overlaid its own, less sophisticated standard.

🍿🎥 The other side: Filmmakers aren’t exactly psyched about the whole “subtitles are the default” situation. Director Hannah Fiddell, for example, said that subtitles can flatten – or even contradict – an actor’s nuanced performance of the dialogue.