While originally intended for the
deaf and the
hard-of-hearing, closed captioning has become something much more. Indeed, CC can dramatically improve your TV watching.
Times when closed-captioning is useful:
- David Duchovny speaks
- British TV
- Background music begins playing, and you don't get the metaphorical importance of it
- Your two-year old sister walks in and exposure to vulgarities may stunt her development
- Various rap, hip-hop, and Backstreet Boys songs
- TV recorders on PC's that search through CC text for keywords
- To see the original dialogue before editing was done (like on The Simpsons)
- So that the black background of the boxes covers up the ever present network logos (that CBS eye gets to me...)
- To better develop one's vocabulary ("alarming" and "disturbing" from the evening news promos)
And of course:
- The ability to see the future by knowing people's lines before they say them