Binge watching, it was only a matter of time before this creates havoc on our lives. Too much of anything can be the path to increased depression and loneliness.The internet has made being connected (meaning 100’s more options) a blessing and a curse. This is our new normal, it is easy to say that we have too much, however every generation states that change has created another level of ‘too much’ information. TV shows are now being created to encourage binge watching. Consumers can now consume a show in larger amounts, steering closer towards American literature, than traditional television. (Netflix / Hulu anyone?)
By creating content for binge viewers, today’s shows have become more recognized a powerful creative force in Hollywood. Now, showrunners design an entire series and cast of characters around a long-term arc that spans across episodes and seasons – in order to understand a contemporary drama, you must start at the beginning and watch it in a linear fashion.
From all the good that the open net provides, it also has created a new level of ‘easy' for people to participate in binge watching. It used to be that you had to have you own recordings of shows (remember the stacks of VHS tapes, and the stack of CD’s?).
Now days, it is the remote that brings it all to us. Technology makes things easier and faster, not always a good thing when there is just too much.
The university of Texas at Austin recently took this to the next level to witness cause / effect from binge watching. Excerpt from the study:[The researchers conducted a survey on 316 18- to 29-year-olds on how often they watched TV; how often they had feelings of loneliness, depression and self-regulation deficiency; and finally on how often they binge-watched TV. They found that the more lonely and depressed the study participants were, the more likely they were to binge-watch TV, using this activity to move away from negative feelings.
The findings also showed that those who lacked the ability to control themselves were more likely to binge-watch. These viewers were unable to stop clicking "Next" even when they were aware that they had other tasks to complete. Little empirical research has been done on binge-watching since it is such a new behavior.
Psychological factors such as loneliness, depression, and self-regulation deficiency have been known as important indicators of binge behavior in general. For example, people engage in addictive behaviors to temporarily forget the reality that involves loneliness and depression. Also, an individual's lack of self-regulation is likely to influence the level of his or her addictive behavior. Therefore, this study tried to understand binge-watching behavior from this set of known factors.
"Even though some people argue that binge-watching is a harmless addiction, findings from our study suggest that binge-watching should no longer be viewed this way," Sung said.
"Physical fatigue and problems such as obesity and other health problems are related to binge-watching and they are a cause for concern. When binge-watching becomes rampant, viewers may start to neglect their work and their relationships with others.
Even though people know they should not, they have difficulty resisting the desire to watch episodes continuously. Our research is a step toward exploring binge-watching as an important media and social phenomenon.”]
Opinions are many, this is a real potential problem, and in many cases can be another catalyst to further deepening ones depression. Easy to talk about, harder to take action if you see your loved ones slipping due to the nature of how easy it is to keep clicking forward, thus pulling away from responsibilities associated with taking care of yourself, working, providing a respectable quality of life.
Know when it is necessary to get help, ask questions, find out what is really happening so that you can get back to your standard of leading a productive life. There is more to living your life than Mad Men, Breaking Bad, etc.
binge bad photo by www.nyfa.edu
