Gone are the days when subtitles were for the elderly, or people watching a show in a foreign language. According to a new study, 61% of people aged 18-24 watch TV and movies with subtitles — even when the show or film is in their native language. Given how the dialogue in Hollywood productions keeps getting quieter while the background music keeps getting louder (we’re looking at you, Christopher Nolan) the results of this survey are hardly surprising. Interestingly, only 13% of people 50-64 years old use subtitles, while 22% of people over the age of 65 activate this feature. This could be because people in those age groups are less likely to watch action films, and that’s the genre that tends to have the biggest sound discrepancy.

Of course, people took to social media to express their surprise at the results of this survey. One person wrote, “Surprised at how few OAPs watch TV with the subtitles on; personally, I (22) am unable to watch TV w/o subtitles now as I’ve spent that much time watching stuff with my grandmother, who needs subtitles cos she both can’t afford and can’t be bothered to get her hearing aids fixed.” While another aptly wrote, “I don’t, but I feel like I should do depending on what I’m watching. Yellowstone is hard to watch without subtitles.”

Another social media user posed the question, “I wonder if this is more to do with the audio quality of more modern productions? Older gens watching older shows that don’t have this issue? Watching shows from b4 2015 seem to be better in terms of voice whereas I actually struggle to hear speech on new Netflix shows etc?” While another was all of us when expressing, “Phew — I thought it was just me getting old, but perhaps it really is a combination of actors mumbling and sound editors allowing music and effects to make dialogue hard to catch.” So, if you find yourself needing to turn on subtitles — don’t worry, it’s definitely not just you!

Anyone who’s seen the scripted drama Squid Game can safely assume that the reality show based on it would be similar. Of course, the real-life contestants won’t need to pay with their lives for losing the game, but they certainly shouldn’t expect the competition to be a walk in the park. That’s why, when they complained about their horrible experience while filming the show, the internet was less than sympathetic.

One former contestant of Squid Game: The Challenge complained, “Imagine you’re playing ‘Red Light Green Light’ for six hours. What game is that? This isn’t a game. The fun is now gone. You can’t tell people they have to stand in below-freezing temperatures in just a tracksuit and two pairs of socks. Come on.” We can’t speak to the temperature, but in terms of taking six hours to film the game — that’s just how reality TV works. Another contestant claimed that the freezing portion of the Red Light, Green Light game lasted up to 30 minutes at a time.” Someone came on the [microphone] and said to hold our positions because the game is not paused. After that, people were dropping like flies.” Once again, this is how reality TV is done — they need to have people frozen while they move the cameras around and get shots of each contestant’s face. A third chimed in, “It was just the cruelest, meanest thing I’ve ever been through. We were a human horse race, and they were treating us like horses out in the cold racing and [the race] was fixed.”

The production companies — ​​Netflix, Studio Lambert, and The Garden — have responded, “We care deeply about the health of our cast and crew, and the quality of this show. Any suggestion that the competition is rigged or claims of serious harm to players are simply untrue. We’ve taken all the appropriate safety precautions, including aftercare for contestants — and an independent adjudicator is overseeing each game to ensure it’s fair to everyone.”

So, was the filming truly done under inhumane conditions? Or are some contestants just sore losers? We’ll just have to watch Squid Game: The Challenge to find out!