There’s no doubt that at this time of the year, many of us Collegiettes are finding ourselves a little more than distracted from studying with our Netflix accounts. Some of your friends might even say you’re addicted! We hate to break it to you, but they’re probably right. Many of us college girls (and guys!) are finding ourselves watching entire seasons of shows on Netflix at a time.
What is “Binge-Watching?”
Binge-watching, or watching two or more episodes of a show at a time, has become a pretty common practice around the UMass Amherst campus. With the releases of the entire Breaking Bad series, as well as the second season of the Netflix original House of Cards, it’s easy to get swept up in a “session.” But why do we actually binge-watch in the first place?
It’s a mental break
With all of the stress of midterms, spending ten seconds just sitting down seems almost impossible to do. But with Netflix, we’re able to spend two or more hours unwinding and relaxing from our own daily stresses. And more often than not, we plan on doing it. Getting through that next episode of Orange is the New Black seems like amazing incentive to get your paper done. It’s sort of like a reward!
It’s a great way to catch up
Online streaming services like Netflix, that provide multiple episodes and seasons at a time, make it incredibly easy to catch up on that show you’ve been meaning to watch for forever. And with more complex dramas, where you can miss a huge twist if you blink (we’re looking at you, Breaking Bad), it’s easy to watch that last episode you missed.
It’s easy to get invested
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve yelled and cursed at my laptop (far too many times for me to even imagine counting) because of a show. The characters, the story line, everything seems to come together perfectly—so much so that you’ll want to keep watching season after season.
Is it a bad thing?
In a survey completed by Netflix, jointly with Harris Interactive, many people who regularly binge-watch aren’t ashamed of it. In fact, most people subscribed to the online service (61%) admit they binge-watch on Netflix regularly, and call it “a new normal.”
Do you binge-watch, Collegiettes?
Sources: