Gen X mom of Gen Z and millennials learns why they love closed captions on everything they watch

Whenever we tune in to watch our favorite shows and films, most of us prefer to turn on the subtitles or closed caption. It doesn't matter if we are fluent in the language being spoken on whatever we are watching, turning on the CC has become a habit for all. Sometimes people might be watching content in a different language and turning on the closed captions or subtitles is justified. A Gen X mother named Kelly Gibson, who goes by @gibsonishere on TikTok, wondered why her adult daughters prefer to turn on the closed caption even though they speak English. So she made a video on the platform to dive deep into this habit and understand the Gen Z and millennial psyche behind it.

"Things you learn when your adult daughters come home for the holidays," she said as she began her video. "So we went to watch a movie the other night and we turned it on. I have three daughters and they were here and two of them were like, young millennials. The other one's an older Gen Z and all of them were like 'why don't you have the captions on?' I'm Gen X and all I could think was because I'm not 70 yet." Gibson also joked to her daughters that they don't need to turn on the subtitles because they are not at their grandma's house, implying that older people have difficulties grasping what's going on the screen due to gradual loss of hearing capacity.

That shocked her Gen Z daughter too. "It is okay to watch movies with the captions going the whole time because they get more out of it. If somebody talks to them in the middle of the film, they can still read and get what's going on even if they can't hear clearly. Why are young people so much smarter than us?" Gibson wondered. She decided to organize a poll for her internet audience and figure out how many millennials actually prefer to watch their content with closed captions. She also wanted to find out how many Gen X folks are interested in watching shows and films with closed captions. Most TikTok audiences also revealed why they preferred having closed captions on the shows and films they love to watch.

@jessileemorgan revealed, "Millennial here. I have ADHD along with the occasional audio processing issues. I love captions. Also, sometimes I like crunchy movie snacks." @sunloveinsb commented, "We use the captions because I (GenX) hate the inability of the movie makers to keep sound consistent. For example, explosions are too loud and conversations too quiet." @heidibspahn wrote, "I've discovered conversations in movies that are meant to be background but make a huge impact on character development by using captions." @robinreadsandwrites quipped, "Millenial here. I’ve been watching with captions on since at least for the last 18 years or so. If I have control the captions are on." @nachosmom701 added, "GenX here. Hubby and I do this! Especially watching British shows and sometimes my American ear doesn’t hear Scottish or Welsh accents well!"

Follow Kelly Gibson (@gibsonishere) on TikTook for more videos on education and lifestyle.