I grew up watching anime with subs and at a certain point it just became natural to have subtitles on even when the content is in English.

For the longest time I couldn't follow anime with subtitles, it kept me from watching the action.

I think practice helped, but so did reducing the size of the video frame. Turns out having the whole frame in my field of view was a big deal.

Depending on the title you're watching, the subs are easier to read. Like one of the episodes from DBZ.

Goku: AHHHHHH!

Vegeta: ARGHHHH!

Goku: OOOMPH!!!

Vegta: HMMMMM!

The visuals were just as simple. For like most of the episode

I think it depends on your reading speed and ability to skim. If you can read faster than people can talk, subtitles aren't really distracting because you can glance down and then go back to reading the visual expressions and background details of the dialogue.

As non english-native speaker I watched so much stuff with captions it's second nature for me.

But for any language that I understand well I only turn them on when the accent is so thick I can't get what the actors are saying.

Similarly I always turn on all subtitles in video games because it's easy to miss something if say ingame explosion or other sound effect covers the voice, or it is just too silent (say NPC talking that's a bit far)

But the article claim it helps multitasking seems weird - how having to look at screen would help when multitasking?

> But the article claim it helps multitasking seems weird - how having to look at screen would help when multitasking?

You have the audio on and are doing something else with your eyes. You don't quite hear something that's been said, glance at the screen, read the captions to fill in what was missed, return your eyes to your other task.

If it was audio only, you missed whatever it was, and have to live with it or replay a little bit of content. Going back a few seconds is often a UI challenge not worth the gained context, IMHO, but if it happens a lot, might as well not be watching anything.

There are a number of tasks that have varying noise levels, yet aren't so involved that you can't keep glancing at the screen. Washing dishes, for example.

>I associate CC with the one place I ever see them - at the laundromat

never watched anything in a foreign language? It's just familiarity, after a while you get used to reading and watching at the same time.

I watch a lot of things in foreign languages, but still feel that having to use subtitles is a worse experience.

I am exactly the same. Even with the audio on, I can’t focus on what’s happening on the screen when captions are on.

My 26 year-old son watches everything with captions, so there’s always a battle because I switch them off and he switches them back on again.

>I find it impossible to concentrate on what is happening visually on screen in a film when closed captions are on.

This is a skill. I would have agreed with you 20 years ago but at some point I started putting them on because I could only afford a shitty audio setup and dramas got really mumbly. Took a while, but I learned to not be distracted by the subtitles.

It's really very fast to get used to if you try.

I'm from Europe so used to subtitles from early age. My wife is Canadian, and first little while of our dating was bewildered with subtitles.

Now though, literally all my Canadian in-laws use subtitles, intergenerationalLy - they're used to them, and addicted to knowing what the heck is going on :)

I mean, I do "try" in the sense that about half the movies I watch are foreign, and therefore require subtitles. Despite this, I really do feel that I miss out on a lot of what is happening in terms of cinematography and creative directorial choices because I'm spending about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time reading the subtitles.