Just during the last few years, I have developed the habit of turning on the captions of the televison whenever I am watching it. I'm not sure about the precise reason why I did it--perhaps too much noise, or maybe I was trying to be quiet for someone else--but, I have become attached to them. Even though I worked at a facotry for about ten years in a high noise (and chemical) environment, I do not have significant hearing loss and can hear most everything just fine. Perhpas another part of the reason is that I prefer reading, and bizarrely, having the captions on the television allows me to read what I'm watching.
Of course, the captions have their idiosyncracies that most people may not be aware of. First, it doesn't caption everything a person says. The captions sometimes skip over complex phrases or slang to produce a written "Stop!" from a spoken "Get your can back here, McBain!" And sometimes the captions from a previous television show or commercial will hang over a non-captioned show or commercial. Recently, over an advertisement for a local business called the Dance Factory hung the words "Navy: It's a way of life." Maybe they were talking about this Navy, still the dancin'est Navy on the planet. But my favorite captioning moment is NOT when you see gibberish on the screen (as in "zxye vrsh ts!"), but when the captioner seems to give up, especially in the late night programs like Jay Leno or David Letterman. The conversation goes too quickly for the live captioner to keep up.
Frankly, I am a little worried about hearing loss in the future. I may have a genetic predisposition, thanks to my biological father. And I already have to ask a few people to speak up, or turn up the television. Hearing is something that you have to take care of because you could lose it. I suppose the other reason why I read captioning is to give my ears a rest. I want to be able to hear things on my own for a long time to come.