Several studies have shown the tragic decline of reading (especially for pleasure) across the world and across socioeconomic strata. Unsurprisingly, the advent and growth of social media use is often blamed for what is increasingly referred to as the ‘post literate’ world. However, there is an interesting aspect of ‘literacy’ that is rising that this article tries to bring out – watching video with captions on.
“To me, captions have been for the hard of hearing or when the source is in a foreign language. But one survey found that most Americans use captions sometimes or always, and among younger people, 40 percent use them often or always. This includes most people I know.
I have been asking around, and the explanations make some sense. Many say it helps them understand more of the dialogue, especially when the English is a different dialect like Scottish or even just British. But also when it’s just plain American. I used to just take it for granted that you would lose a word here and there, especially in a movie, and especially when first settling into it. After all, we do in real life. But there’s no reason we have to settle for that with TV and movies now that technology allows us to get every word.”
But the author notes that it is prevalent even among those who can perfectly comprehend every word. Why then would we sacrifice watching some part of the picture while trying to read the captions? “…studies show that you spend about a quarter of your time reading the captions rather than watching the picture.”
The author says he found an answer from his tween daughter’s friend: “She said, “I like reading, and with the captions it’s just bam, the words!”
I think it’s a sign of what happens to our sense of language when literacy becomes widespread, as the professor of literature Walter Ong wrote of in his magnificent “Orality and Literacy.”
Literacy, Ong wrote, fashions a sense that written language is “real” language while spoken language is an inexact approximation of it.
In that vein, captions naturally seem like a completion of spoken dialogue, laying out in full what just talking only approximates — “Bam, the words!” In her article for The Atlantic “The End of Reading Is Here,” Rose Horowitch argued that we are becoming a post-literate society. She is dead on in terms of longform prose, but the preference to see Marvel films captioned shows that our brains are still “on writing,” just as one can be on a drug. Literacy transforms how we process language. Once technology allows us to watch speech joined by its written equivalent, we embrace the writing — speech is completed if we see it simultaneously spelled out”
Reading is far from dead, indeed.
If you want to read our other published material, please visit https://marcellus.in/blog/
Note: The above material is neither investment research, nor financial advice. Marcellus does not seek payment for or business from this publication in any shape or form. The information provided is intended for educational purposes only. Marcellus Investment Managers is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and is also an FME (Non-Retail) with the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) as a provider of Portfolio Management Services. Additionally, Marcellus is also registered with US Securities and Exchange Commission (“US SEC”) as an Investment Advisor.
