A recent AP-NORC 2025 survey of more than 1,000 adult participants showed that more than a third of the U.S. population always or often uses captions and closed captions. This number increases among young adults, with 40% of people aged 18 to 44 always or often using this feature, and almost 70% using it at least sometimes. Why exactly are so many people using closed captions now, and why are younger people – primarily Gen Z – much more likely to use closed captions?
Today’s young people are at higher risk of hearing problems than those of previous generations, a problem that researchers are using gene therapy to address. This is due to increased exposure to loud sounds from using headphones like AirPods Max 2 or AirPods Pro 3 at full volume, as well as noise pollution from living in urban areas.
However, this is probably not the reason why Gen Z often uses closed captions, or at least not the only reason. If that were the case, there would be no need to use subtitles when wearing headphones. Likewise, if this were the case, older generations would have shown much higher rates of subtitle usage, and the data shows that this is not the case. What’s more likely is that Gen Z likes captions due to a mix of more frequent phone use (often in public places), the normalization of closed captions on social media, multitasking, and a greater variety of things to watch.
Why Generation Z loves subtitles
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A major downside to subtitles is that you can’t fully enjoy every scene if your eyes are constantly moving between the subtitles and what is being shown. This is certainly true for larger screens, but it’s not as big of an issue on the relatively smaller screens of smartphones, which young adults more commonly use to consume media.
Likewise, if you’re browsing Netflix’s new Clips section or watching YouTube in public, you may not want to turn up the volume to hear what’s being said, or there may simply be too much external noise to hear the video even if you turn it up or use headphones. Since this happens quite often, it makes sense that this creates a habit of using subtitles more often.
Beyond that, most social media apps now offer captions. In many short videos on TikTok or Instagram Reels, captions are embedded into the video itself, increasing users’ reliance on them. Subtitles are also useful when you’re multitasking or just can’t concentrate, as the text can be easier to read and understand. The greater variety of things to watch also adds to this. You may not need subtitles if you only watch English-language movies, but there are now more people discovering non-English content — K-dramas, anime, and story-based games — that aren’t always dubbed.
