Want to seem younger? Turn on the closed captioning on your TV

If you've ever complained about the sound on movies or TV shows – that the dialogue is too soft or the actors' accents make it difficult to understand them – I've got good news.

You're not old. In fact, trouble hearing characters may be a sign that you're youthful.

Yes!

A survey by research and analytics company YouGov last year revealed this stunning fact: The younger you are, the more likely you are to use subtitles while watching a film on Netflix or Amazon or Max or wherever you watch TV (or movies). Younger people use subtitles the most!

YouGov surveyed 1,000 adults and found that people aged 18 to 29 used subtitles 63% of the time while watching shows in their native language. And the older you get, the less likely you are to use subtitles: Those aged 30 to 44 use subtitles 37% of the time, those aged 45 to 64 use them 29% of the time and those 65 and older use them 30% of the time.

It's a downward slope when comparing use to age, which leads to three possible conclusions:

1. Young people aren't worried that their spouse will think they have a hearing problem if they use subtitles.
2. Young people are smarter.
3. The older you get, the less likely you are to know how to turn on subtitles or even be aware that such an option exists.

I don't know about you, but this brings me comfort. While Mrs. Brad and I occasionally use subtitles, it's often on shows where the English is spoken with an accent (I'm looking at you, Great Britain. Not only do you talk funny, but you have a lot of variations, making it complicated for me to understand what you're bloody talkin' about, Nigel!).

However, the explosion of content (the number of TV shows and movies produced annually has exploded during the streaming era, likely leading to a decrease in quality control) and stylistic changes in movies led to two things that irritate this aging baby boomer.

The first is that many shows or movies need better sound mixing. For example, there's often background music that's so loud, it drowns out the dialogue. Somebody didn't do their job!

The second factor is the emergence of actors who mumble their lines. Maybe it's a great affectation if you're an actor ("my character lacks confidence and therefore mumbles"), but it's terrible for the audience, who can't understand what you're saying.

Except those 25-year-olds, who confidently turned on the close captioning so they could follow the plot.

All I know is that I'm in the group that uses subtitles less than the youngsters, but this makes me more likely use the function, even when the show isn't some Brit mumbling about a "dipper in Walham Green."

The next time Mrs. Brad (who won't likely see this column) asks why I want to turn on the subtitles, I'll explain that the actors are mumbling, the accents are hard to understand and that I'm "adulting" like the 25-year-olds who complain about how my generation ruined the world while they use subtitles to watch ancient shows like "The Big Bang Theory."

It's good to seem young, isn't it? What? Can you turn on the closed captioning while speaking? I'm not deaf, I'm youthful!

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.