Personally I am all for binge watching! So don’t be confused about this article title. It all began with the Freeform app, an app that I thought every college woman should have. Even if you don’t have a cable account, they still have shows that are available without signing into a cable network.
I began to watch the show, Make it or Break it, a show about four young women who aspire to make the U.S. Olympic Team. You can guess what happened next. I began to binge. I would stay up all night to catch up to the next episode. This may seem harmless, but as a college student, my workload was pretty heavy and wasting time binging wasn’t the smartest decision I made. I didn’t fail any of my courses,but I was definitely more restless. Even though I knew I had other responsibilities, such as classes, extracurriculars, and of course sleeping, my obsession with the show was so bad I was unable to put my phone down.
The show was beginning to invade my dreams and I was starting to become affected by things in the show.Don’t worry I won’t give any spoilers. Something happened to one of the female characters that I thought was terribly unreasonable. I was so angry for her that I called my mother to complain. My mother ended up telling me it’s not real and to get over it. Then I started to wonder, why I was allowing a show to affect my real life. None of these characters were actually real and their problems were not my problems. I realized that my obsession was getting out of control and I needed to take a break from watching. Otherwise I was going to drive myself insane.
If you find yourself with these symptoms, then I suggest you take a break from your current binge.
1. THE NEXT EPISODE SYNDROME
Not knowing when to stop watching and ignoring the need for sleep.
2. I HATE THE WORLD SYNDROME
When something in the show pissed me off, I found that my day was a bit … off. I would get angry at anyone who encountered me. I wasn’t unbearable but on the inside I felt like this guy …
3. THAT’S MY HUNK SYNDROME
This syndrome is when you truly believe that one special relationship on the show is somehow your special relationship. For instance the character, Damon on Make it or Break it had made me believe that the man of my dreams was somehow going to find me so that he could confess his love through beautiful songs he had written for me While of course borrowing a tour bus to ensure he was able to see me follow my dreams! The Power of TV!
Many of you may ignore this, and continue to binge, binge, binge. But it’s important to know your TV binging limits.