Popularity is rising for many newly viral teen TV shows and this new “watch party” trend is creating bonds and friendships through endless laughs, debates and nostalgic feelings.
With the new semester in full swing, it’s safe to say everyone’s schedules have begun to fill up with campus events, study groups, club meetings and exam cram sessions. I arrived in Columbia, Missouri for my freshman year of college with my color-coordinated planner and my Google Calendar organized down to the minute, only to change the whole thing once I started my collegiate experience. I wasnât surprised when I added new appointments for newspaper interviews and late-night study sessions, but the events that have been unexpectedly dominating my perfectly organized planner are the dorm watch parties.Â
It’s no secret that the trend of girly coming-of-age books and their movie adaptations and trash reality television has absolutely soared within the last year. Now it seems like people will get together for a watch party of a different program every day of the week. I was shocked by this phenomenon when, during my first week of college, I was booked for the âLove Island Season 7 Reunion Recapâ watch party on Monday, âThe Summer I Turned Prettyâ watch party on Wednesday and Netflix’s âMy Life with the Walter Boysâ watch party on Friday.
I certainly wasnât complaining about the busy schedule as I was still looking to make friends and dealing with the classic college freshman emotions, feeling lonely and overwhelmed. I attended all three events and laughed about Austin Shepardâs hollow remarks during the âLove Islandâ reunion, screamed and cried for poor Conrad Fisher during âThe Summer I Turned Prettyâ and even found myself watching the second season of âMy Life with the Walter Boys,â a show Iâd never even heard of and had no idea of what was going on. It wasnât the crazy and frankly ridiculous nature of the television shows that kept me coming back each week to watch more, but rather the community created by groups of girls all watching, laughing and talking together. These watch parties gave me some of the best friends I’ve ever had and even inspired us to continue with our own viewing parties for the new season of âDancing With The Stars.âÂ
This obsession with events related to teenage girl television shows are most definitely not unique to our campus. The concept of a watch party for new films, premieres and episodes is a phenomenon that gained its popularity on social media with cute snacks and aesthetics such as âbring a board nightâ and âdress for your teamâ (but letâs be real, whoâs actually team Jeremiah?). Suddenly, these cute aesthetic-themed watch parties were all over my social media feed and even I was tempted into watching TV shows and films I had resisted watching for years
The question you may be asking by now is, âWhy are people so obsessed with themed TV show viewing parties?â This is a question that all television and entertainment networks have been trying to answer and replicate since the rise of this silver screen trend. This phenomenon is likely traced back to three key ideas.
There’s something so incredibly nostalgic and reminiscent of childhood when watching a TV show with your best friends, screaming at the TV and laughing at the characters’ misfortune. The feeling of nostalgia is one that most of us can relate to. People love the warm and safe feeling of a goofy show about a high school love triangle or a villa on a tropical island. These programs are mindless and safe and remind viewers of a comfortable feeling of their younger years.Â
That safe feeling isnât unique to the content of the show either. The internet has turned these watch parties into full-themed events as a reminder of those around you and the importance of one another. In the age of adulthood, interviews, mortgages and internships, prioritizing one’s friendships starts to become less important for many people. The National Institute of Health explains the importance of friendships in one’s college years and adulthood in a study from 2023. The study concluded that there is a direct link between one’s quality of friendships in their adulthood and their overall everyday well-being. A recurring event, such as a weekly watch party counting down to a new episode, gives people a gathering point, something to look forward to and a nostalgic feeling reminiscent of high school and middle school sleepover parties.Â
A commonly attributed reason for the obsession with such television is that âitâs just girlhood,â a term that started around the release of âBarbieâ back in 2023. The Strand describes how we have redefined girlhood as phrases or actions we take to align ourselves with a beautiful and elegant picture of being a woman in society. Branches of this umbrella of girlhood include the popular TikTok slang âgirl dinnerâ and âgirl math,â which are terms that social media has adopted to describe female actions as cute or girly.
The influence of social media and the fear of missing out is a very real contributor to the rising number of viewers these stations have been receiving. There are hundreds of TikTok trends that lead back to these popular TV shows at any given time, and the influence of seeing that everyone is watching it is enough to make many people give in and tune in to next week’s episode. Cornell University determined that TikTok has led to many users adopting a âgroup mentalityâ or the idea that if one person is doing something, we all should start to adopt the same habits. This explains why trends such as the watch party are so easily globalized. It only takes one video on one’s feed to influence them to copy such standards.Â
Thereâs no doubt that the reappearance of weekly released television shows in pop culture and consequently, the trend of the watch party has led to newfound connections between others. These fanbases have given us something easy to discuss and a common interest to bring new groups of people together, as silly as it may seem. I know for me, I owe some of the best friends Iâve ever had to the dorm watch parties, and I can only hope for another season or two to grow an even larger community for myself here on campus.Â