For people who are deaf or hard of hearing, using subtitles and closed captions on video content is a helpful way to consume content.
But if you are not hearing-impaired and find yourself switching on the subtitles while watching a movie or TV show in your own language, you are not alone.
RMIT University digital media senior lecturer Ben Byrne is among a growing cohort of subtitle users.
"There are a lot of reasons, I think, why there's possibly an increased use of subtitles," Mr Byrne said.
"I think there [are] issues with disjunct between production processes, particularly the way sound is recorded, and especially mixed, and the many different devices people use to watch and listen."
As Mr Byrne pointed out, many production companies, particularly big-budget filmmakers, were not necessarily making movies and shows for the devices we most often watched them on – our phones.
"[Films are] often made with a focus on being presented in the cinema where there are a lot of speakers," he said.
"There's not a lot of sound from outside, and people can have a really good listening environment.
"Then those films are also distributed on streaming services, and in other ways, and people watch them on TV at home, also on their phone, on their laptop."
Most people do not have cinema-quality speaker systems, and the speakers on phones, tablets and thin TV screens are tiny in comparison.
"There's a bit of a change in culture going on," Mr Byrne said.
"People watch a lot of audio-visual material via social media, very often on mobile devices and in public streets, public spaces, and on public transport.
"In those contexts, [if] they don't have headphones with them or they won't want to use headphones for some reason, then they'll be using subtitles."
Tech improvements add to problem
Another explanation for why we are switching on subtitles is because of the way sound is recorded and mixed for film and TV.
"I think most of us have done this, you turn it up to clearly hear a voice and then if there's action on screen [like] a car chase or a crash or explosion, then it's really, really loud," Mr Byrne said.
This is due to what's called "dynamic range", which is essentially the difference between the loudest sounds, like an explosion, and the softest or baseline sounds such as voices in normal conversation.
It's the job of sound designers and mixers to maintain that dynamic range of sound that will give audiences the best experience of a film and its storyline.
"If they were to put the level of voices in a film louder in the mix relative to all those other things, [it] wouldn't have quite the same impact [when there is a] car crash," Mr Byrne said.
Microphones have also changed over time.
"A whole variety of technological advancements have made it possible for microphones to be more and more sensitive and able to pick up more and more detail," Mr Byrne said.
Gone are the days when actors had to project their voices out to a big microphone above their heads.
Nowadays, tiny lapel microphones cleverly hidden on actors can pick up even the smallest whisper.
"Earlier, microphones were incapable of doing that, particularly without picking up a whole lot of noise as well," he said.
"But you can also have big differences in the levels of people's voices or other sounds that are going on."
This means actors can get away with a lot more mumbling, and while it might have been easy to make out what they were saying in the cinema, no amount of editing and mixing can make it intelligible on your TV speakers.
Mixed progress on accessibility
Fiona Murphy was born deaf in her left ear and has been progressively losing hearing in her right.
"Watching television without captions can feel like doing a jigsaw puzzle, crossword and sudoku all at once," Ms Murphy said.
"Captions allow me to unwind and relax."
She said it was great people were learning how useful closed captions and subtitles could be on social media and streaming platforms.
"There is a long history of inventions that were developed for disabled people becoming commonplace, such as keyboards, telephones, electric toothbrushes, and audiobooks," Ms Murphy said.
For her and other deaf or hearing-impaired people, subtitles will always be a necessary accessibility requirement.
"In some ways, access has never been easier, in other ways we have such a long way to go," she said.
"Some platforms and apps use auto-generated captions, which can be riddled with nonsense or random words.
"This makes the content completely inaccessible.
"I hope that people learn that talking about access doesn't have to be a fraught process."
