If we’re being honest, nobody really
wants to hear you blast whatever video content you’re watching in public at
high volume. It’s a much better idea (and less likely to earn you resentful
glares) to simply watch videos on mute if you’re around other people. Even if
you’re an otherwise lovely individual—and we’re certain you are—imposing your favourite
content creator’s videos on others is not going to land you on anyone’s nice
list. Trust me, we’ve tried.
It may surprise you just how
often people are already choosing to watch video without sound. Multiple
studies have found that on various social media platforms, the majority of
video consumers watch with the audio muted. In fact, 85% of videos on Facebook
are watched without sound, many of which are discovered by users via their news
feed and subsequently shared out to their social networks.
Overall, according to a joint
study by Verizon and Publcis, 69% of people view video with the sound off in
public places—and even in private places, 25% are watching on mute!
Millions of people are watching
videos without the sound on. So how are they able to understand the content?
The answer: captions! If you’re observant, and you take a look at your favourite
influencer’s videos lately, you’d notice they’re all captioned.
In addition to helping those who
watch video content on mute, captions are employed to make videos accessible to
those who are deaf or hard of hearing. They appear as text on the bottom of the
screen, and typically represent the speech between individuals on the TV,
computer, or mobile device.
In order to help you be a
considerate consumer of video files, we’ve compiled this list of the top 7
places where it’s good practice to watch closed captioned videos without sound:
- Public transportation: Pretty much every city-dweller has encountered some person on public transit—be it bus, tram, trolley, or subway—watching a video with sound, sometimes all the way up, oblivious to the fact that they’re interrupting and annoying everyone else around them. So please, do us all a favour: after you step off the platform and onto whatever conveyance will be taking you to your destination, follow your videos by reading the captions instead.
- Library. Ah, the library—one of the few remaining bastions of true quiet and tranquility in the public realm. As such, this is one of the last places where it would be appropriate to watch an unmuted video. There are people there doing a variety of things—conducting research for a paper, studying for an exam, or perhaps just browsing for a good novel to bring to the beach—who wish to focus on their activity in silence. Show them the respect they’re due and watch your videos without audio.
- Coffee shop: In complete contrast to the library, coffee shops tend to be buzzy places with lots of noise. There’s the pulsing tempo of the ambient music, the hissing and humming of the espresso machine, and the clinking of enamel mugs against saucers. In this scenario, it’s unlikely that you’d even be able to hear a video at all without the volume turned way up. So unless you have headphones or earbuds, the most considerate thing to do is keep the sound off and the captions on.
- Waiting room: There are many situations where we could find ourselves in the dreaded waiting room: check-up with the doctor, cleaning appointment with the dentist, oil change at the mechanic, job interview with a prospective employer, or a meeting with a client. And unless browsing a six-month old issue of People magazine is an appealing way for you to kill time, watching videos on your smartphone or tablet is definitely a superior option. But, you know, just do it on mute.
- Office break room: The break room is the oasis of the modern-day workplace—it’s here where you can sit on an uncomfortable plastic chair among the laminated labor law disclosures and dual microwave ovens and just take a load off. Most frequently, you won’t be alone. Kyle from two cubicles down might stop by to grab his leftover Thai takeout from the fridge, and the receptionist, Jocelyn, will likely pop in to grab a coffee refill. As a courtesy to them and your other coworkers, if you’re going to watch a video in the break room, make sure it’s in silence.
- Restroom: This one should be pretty self-explanatory. As a general rule, you should spend no more time in a restroom than what is required to do what you went there to do. Of course, we recognize that not everyone feels the same way. To some, the restroom can be a place to find peace and solitude and spend some time away from the daily demands of life. Regardless, nobody needs to know about your activities there other than you. So if you’re watching a video behind the closed stall door, do it with the volume all the way down.
- In line: Standing in line—to buy movie tickets, to get into a concert, to enter the Apple Store and finally pick up the iPhone 13 Pro Max you ordered—is akin to being on public transportation. You’re around a bunch of strangers (and perhaps some friends, if you’re lucky enough to have them) who probably aren’t terribly interested in the same videos you are. So, when you’re tuning in, turn on the captions and follow along by reading the words on the screen.