Why Is 70% Of Gen Z Using Captions On TV Shows And Movies?
People used to think of subtitles and captions primarily as a tool for the deaf and hard of hearing, a staple of the TV at your grandparents’ house. But in a strange turn of cultural events, times have changed, and now there are far more young people using captions.
According to a recent report by Preply, a whopping 70% of Gen Z viewers report being frequent users of subtitles, compared to a mere 38% of Baby Boomers. According to Stagetext, a charity dedicated to making culture accessible to the hard of hearing, numbers could be even higher than that. Of those polled, 80% of adults aged 18-24 were likely to use subtitles some or all of the time, even though only 10% were deaf or hard of hearing. Among adults aged 56-75, only 23% reported regular use of subtitles – a truly staggering difference. All signs point to the same trend: Gen Z loves to see the words of their videos somewhere written out on the screen.