Five Reasons 'Binge-Watching' Is Bad For Us

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Five Reasons 'Binge-Watching' Is Bad For Us

"Binge-watching" has become more prevalent than ever thanks to the likes of Netflix, but is this good for us?

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[Terratina.]

'Grats! Nice article. I, for one, now find myself having difficulty with binge watching. Maybe it's due to the fact that US dramas have episodes that are twice as long or more than the usual anime fare? Either way, Hannibal is still staring at me, tapping its toes and waiting for me to watch more of it.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I'd watch Hannibal, but I get the feeling annoying Fappy by not watching it is more entertaining. xD

 

[Queen Michael]

Good article, friendo. I gotta agree that there are just too many series to catch up on. For instance, the series I'd like to get into (or continue watching) but just can't fit into my schedule include Firefly, Game of Thrones, The Wire, Adventure Time, The Bg Bang Theory, Gravity Falls, and a few more that I can't think of right this second.

I think the reason Sherlock is so popular is that there are only nine movie-length episodes. Easy to catch up.

 

[RandV80]

So basically with your time frame you started when reality TV was at it's peak and graduated into the modern netflix culture.

What you missed is before this nearly all TV shows were completely episodic. Each 30/60 minute was a self contained episode that had little to no link to the prior or upcoming episode, so that if you happened to be their you could sit down and watch but if you miss an episode then no big deal.

All the shows I watched as a teen in the 90's were like that: Star Trek TNG, X-Files, Highlander, Hercules, etc etc. The method has its place but but it's not very good at telling broader narratives & storylines that you could get out of a book/video game/anime. Now on TV you're getting full 8 hour stories rather than a setup with re-occurring variations of stories that last 40 minutes each.

 

[Terratina.]

I'd watch Hannibal, but I get the feeling annoying Fappy by not watching it is more entertaining. xD

I think that sentence sums up exactly the sort of person you are. ;D

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

while I can more or less see all your points, I would argue against #5, the exact reason I love netflix is that it is a perfect detox with having to deal with people all day at work, I get home and want nothing more than for everyone to shut the fuck up and let me watch hours of my favorite shows in complete peace and quiet (obviously besides netflix). This is one of the few things that keeps me sane through the work week, and without it I'd probably be a much more irritable person all the time.

 

[lacktheknack]

http://weedactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/sellout.1.jpg

Good article. I don't binge-watch, so I'm safe from all those icky effects, but it was still an interesting and informative read.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

House of Cards is really good, I highly recommend watching that.

I'd still say that interacting with people online and irl is still a large component of TV that is intrinsic. You get that tick where you desperately want others to experience what you just experienced and discuss it whilst you're still high on it. There's plenty of people like that on the internet, and since Netflix is a subscription service, watching another show isn't an additional financial investment by itself, in fact, it's encouraged so you get your money's worth.

Vague interest right now is becoming intertwined with getting the most out of your subscription, which I think actually helps to get you out of your comfort zone.

In terms of documentaries, I think they're making more of a shift towards public domain/freely distributed services like YouTube. Take a look at Vice; their pieces are very popular and people do enjoy watching them in droves(if we discount Vice's problems as a magazine). It definitely isn't because of their HBO partnership, but I feel that public access may be where it is heading whilst the entertainment side of things is reserved for Netflix and the like.

Also don't worry my friend. You aren't losing much by not entering the cesspool that is Twitter.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

snip

Well, the key point there is that you are actually going to work. You're leaving the house, earning you keep, and I presume at the very least getting some stimulating social interaction from your day. If, after that, all you want to do is go and crash for a few hours in front of your TV or computer, there's nothing wrong with that.

snip

The buzz that surrounds the more popular TV shows these days is one avenue of social interaction, I'll grant you, but I still think something's getting lost. How often do you reckon you sit down with friends or family to all watch something you enjoy together, and laugh, cheer or whatever else all in each-other's company? At the end of the day, I can only speak for myself, but I know that this describes a lot less of my viewing experience than it used to. Without streaming and catch-up, groups of people with shared tastes are forced to co-habit the same space at the same time, and I wouldn't want to see that go away, not entirely.

snip

Yes, and while this has contributed towards what I believe to be some of the best television that has ever existed being made right now (all the points I just made aside, I still believe the positives to far outweigh the negatives) this in its own way is part of the problem. Isn't the ultimate convenience of online catch-up (in theory) that you can take it or leave it entirely according to your own schedule? However, when show in this format are being made to string together, constantly tempting us to watch "just one more episode..." and start trying to manage everything else around it, haven't we got it backwards?

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

snip

Well, the key point there is that you are actually going to work. You're leaving the house, earning you keep, and I presume at the very least getting some stimulating social interaction from your day. If, after that, all you want to do is go and crash for a few hours in front of your TV or computer, there's nothing wrong with that.

True, but I was more or less basing this on the average person (which is what I assumed your article was doing as well.) and considering unemployment percentages, I think we can assume the average person has a job or something of some sorts day to day.

But yes after work, I want nothing more than to sit down and watch hours of netflix and play video games, not even a girlfriend would entice me to change that. *wait a minute* maybe a I do have a problem....

 

[Remus]

Olly's a little ***** and needs to die, then turned into a wight so he can die again! As for binge watching, I don't partake. I DVR and watch any shows I missed the next day or not at all. I get all the points, and by watching hours of television, I get stir crazy because I'm not doing that quest or mission I want to complete so bad in that game I've been playing so long, in yet another backlog in my library (DAMN YOU STEAM!)

 

[FPLOON]

The only aspect I really hate about binge-watching is if a show is almost made to be binge-watch in the first place... For example, one of my friends allowed me to use his Netflix to watch Daredevil, but I had to stop right after the second episode because he didn't tell me it was only going to be a two-hour deal... Afterwards, upon reflection, I felt dissatisfied with how the second episode ended because it seemed like it was just getting started, the same way the first episode's ending felt like, to the point that I kinda wished both episodes and the episodes to follow where just stitched together into one long-ass movie if each episode's going to make me feel that way after watching an episode and "stopping" right there... Maybe that's just me, but I never felt that way about an episode's ending like that even when I caught episodes of a similar length off Stars, HBO, and Showtime... (except for certain season finales, I guess...)

Anyway, I still feel like there has to be some form of physical copy of sorts (which, at least, House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black are kinda doing that on Blu-Ray) as well as the solution to the first reason can mostly come from putting in "wild card" suggestions[footnote]"So, since you've been watching Daredevil and Bojack Horseman, why not also watch Grace and Frankie and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?" says your Netflix account as you, one again, question its algorithm...[/footnote] and the solution to the third reason can be "kinda" solved by not releasing every episode at once unless they're all stitched together into one long-ass episode... Then again, as you probably already figured out, I don't have Netflix mainly because of the whole "licensing thang" which still doesn't set right with me when thinking about the whole "Netflix and their streaming brothers, sisters, and/or cousins are better experience" reasoning behind having it in the first place...

*sighs* I just remembered that one of my friend's doesn't even like the Daredevil Netflix series because the episodes are too damn long... yet he wouldn't mind binging through the Director's Cut of Lord of the Rings... Must be an entertainment medium thing or something...

 

[Scars Unseen]

Since most shows I watch are story-focused(and often anime), I usually prefer to binge. In fact, this season is the only time I've not been impatient for each new episode to come out, and that's because I'm watching around 20 shows, so there's rarely a night where I just have absolutely nothing to watch.

 

[Fappy]

I'd watch Hannibal, but I get the feeling annoying Fappy by not watching it is more entertaining. xD

I am more annoyed when people ignore my anime recommendations. I have superior taste and everyone should listen to me. :3

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I binge watched Planet Earth... Hell, I have binge watched it with a group of people on multiple occasions... Why?

Usually booze! TV and Movies don't lend themselves very well to parties all sat around the living room. Stick Atten-god on and suddenly it becomes an awesome equivelent of backgroumd music whilst you sink a few bevvies and chat your life away!

Shit... I wish Sir David was my Grandfather...

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

This is the stupidest thing I've ever read, and I'm actually a little upset that I wasted even the time it took to read the 5 bullet points.

Well, with feedback as fair and comprehensive as this, I know I can only get better. Thank you!

I binge watched Planet Earth... Hell, I have binge watched it with a group of people on multiple occasions... Why?

Usually booze! TV and Movies don't lend themselves very well to parties all sat around the living room. Stick Atten-god on and suddenly it becomes an awesome equivelent of backgroumd music whilst you sink a few bevvies and chat your life away!

Shit... I wish Sir David was my Grandfather...

Okay. This, I will concede, is a brilliant idea. I must give it a try.

 

[Lightknight]

This is the stupidest thing I've ever read, and I'm actually a little upset that I wasted even the time it took to read the 5 bullet points.

Well, with feedback as fair and comprehensive as this, I know I can only get better. Thank you!

You, are a champ. Grace, humility and well deserved snark, I love it!

Regarding the article, I'd like to respond in depth:

1. Variety: Most of the sites like Netflix and Hulu Plus have the "Most popular/viewed" shows queue that are not biased towards you. There's also the idea that these things don't exist in a vacuum. "Hidden Gems" usually get mentioned by someone whose job it is to find it and as long as you're keeping an eye on those feeds you won't miss out on much.

Additionally, thanks to digital television most of us don't flip through the channels anymore anyways. We have a limited number of channels we like and we stick to them because there's hundreds and hundreds of others out there that we don't care to filter through. That's a problem with TV management now, not binge watching.

2. Not fitting other genres: I'm not sure how this is harmful to us. Are you indicating that in the future the genres that can't be binge watched won't be created at all? There are shows that I simply cannot or will not watch straight in a row. But I do watch all of them because they're good. I would think continued watching and binge watching would both be viewed in the same boat as long as the same number of shows are getting watched. Especially from a marketing perspective. Hell, right now binge watching damages ads because they keep getting replayed and the customer gets annoyed. Slow burn shows are better for that.

3. Can't keep up: This just means that we have less and less excuse to be bored with the shows we're watching. The only issue here would again be addictive personality or even completionism issues. This is the result of a growing industry. We have got to change this about ourselves, learn to let "keeping up" go except on the most important shows. The same is already becoming true for video games where there's no way to play ALL of them anymore.

4. Preservation: Crowd sourced data storage of entertainment (i.e. pirates) really makes this a null argument. The problem with old movies and even old games is that we didn't have anything so close to the amount of recording and storage space we have today.

Now, will some shows fall through the cracks? Yes. And those will be the utter garbage that no one cares about.

5. Anti-social: I binge watch shows when I'm alone. I don't binge watch shows when I have the opportunity to be with other people. So that point is more on the side of addictive television watching than necessarily on the side of "binge watching". For example, I go home for lunch sometimes. That's when I binge watched Archer. Now I just play a video game which is inherently no more better than had I been watching a show. Or, let's say my wife and I are home at night and the day is through. If there's a new show we found on Netflix or wherever we'll go ahead and binge watch it. In all honesty, watching television isn't a social thing in general. Now, I have found occasional gems where I've invited friends over to watch (e.g. Moone Boy, Idiot Abroad, etc.) and that has actually made them more social than TV watching ever was before.

 

[harrisongrimms]

I get paid $9 an hour to bimge watch Tv, what now?

Do what you love guys

Im currently watchimg the leprechaun series (up to in the hood 2) the terminator series for when leprechaun gets so stupid I need a break (on salvation, then watchin sarah conner chronicles)

Then im goimg to start over on Knights of Sidonia, since they took a year to make a 2nd season and I dont remember jack lol.

I also recently watched Human Centipede 3......and I dont recommend it lol

 

[happyninja42]

I dunno, I don't really see the issue much. I guess I have a different idea of "binge watching" then. Some of the responses are about " I can't fit these into my schedule". Well just pick one evening and watch a few episodes? Or like what I recently did with my wife and Sense8. I started watching it on a Friday night, realized she'd like it too, so I got her to watch it with me. We watched a few episodes, and then did the rest of the series that Saturday on our day off. We'd pause to do lunch and chores, and other stuff, but it was a fun way to spend a day. I mean, if we weren't watching that one show, we would've been watching various movies, or things on youtube, or whatever. It's not like we wouldn't have been consuming video entertainment at all. Just that day, it was one show.

Yeah, if you're trying to watch some 9 season show, non stop or something, yeah that's kind of dumb. Just watch handfuls of episodes, and digest it in meaty chunks. Seems simple enough to me.