I found out yesterday just how addicted I am to closed captioning. Yes, I’m addicted to having the closed captioning at the bottom of the screen, especially during movies. It started right after Carson was born. When he was napping or nursing or something, we would want to watch a show or movie, but keep the volume reasonably low. It got ridiculous trying to wrestle with the volume control to keep the loud parts quiet and the quiet parts loud enough to hear and understand. So, we just started using closed captioning.
I’ve been trying to wean myself from it, but I usually end up turning it back on. I know most people can’t stand it. I think it’s that I’m now used to having a reference at the bottom of the screen to look at as soon as I don’t understand one phrase someone has said. I’m very visual! If they mumble too much, I want to read below what it was they said. You’d be surprised how much easier it is to understand a complex plot, or one with lots of names and places (I mean, LOTR has taken on a whole new meaning for me) when you are able to read as you watch.
Yesterday in church, the worship leader was praying. I had my eyes closed, as we all know is one of the requirements for heaven. He said something in his prayer that I didn’t quite catch, and I instinctively openened my eyes and looked up. In that spit second, I realized that I was looking up to catch the words on the closed captioning. Oops! Somebody needs an intervention.