Netflix May Be Taking Over Your Life
Seventy-five million people have subscribed to Netflix since 2015. Of those seventy-five million, the average Netflix user watches one hour and thirty-three minutes a day, totalling 568 hours per year. If said subscribers were to maintain this daily regimen, then
six percent of their life would be spent watching Netflix.
That certainly explains why after spending a good hour researching the “negative health effects of Netflix,” nearly all of the search results were articles such as “Top Ten Netflix Show,” “Must-Watch Series,” or “This Trending Actor. ” Given that major news outlets often reflect the interests of the consumers, and popular articles drive revenue, one could assume that either:
America doesn’t know that binge-watching is an issue, or
America doesn’t want to know that binge-watching is an issue.
First, let’s assume the situation is the former. The knowledge of possible negative health effects of binge-watching is found by scientific institutions, primarily research facilities at universities. The responsibility to spread this knowledge now lies in the major media outlets. But unfortunately, given that these major media outlets are also profit-driven institutions, writing negative articles about the very service that creates profit is illogical, and might even result in lost money. Ouch.
If the situation is the latter, and we are simply being ignorant of dangerous binge-watching habits, there’s the even worse issue of addiction as America might be too addicted to Netflix to even want to fix the issue. Studies have shown that movie and TV show watching triggers the reward center of our brains when we finish an episode, releasing dopamine into our system, which happens to be the center for addiction in the human body. Concerning health-damaging effects, Netflix may not seem as severe as hard drugs. But concerning productivity, Netflix can negatively affect one’s daily regimen - especially in teenagers.
I recently underwent a personal experiment in my own household. My little brother, who would watch four to five hours of Netflix a day, spent more than twice the hours per average subscriber to the service. If he were to maintain his habits, he would end up spending roughly fifteen-percent of his life watching Netflix. I even faced issues myself when I got hooked on a particular show he was watching -- House -- and spent each weeknight watching an episode before I started my homework. Even that single episode greatly affected my busy day-to-day life relative to school. I started turning in sloppy assignments and often skipped lunch to do homework. The following weekend I cancelled Netflix, and for a few nights my brother gave up TV all together. But in the end, my brother’s addiction carried through, and he simply switched to Youtube as his source of binge-watching.
Unfortunately, I would not be writing this article if I had not seen the effects Netflix had on my fellow Derryfield students:
As the section highlighted in red indicates, more than half of Derryfield students spend more time on Netflix, Youtube, or social media than the average hour and a half that Netflix users spend on the streaming service. So, if whatever your “Netflix” is affects your life - whether it be social media, Youtube, or TV - reconsider your daily actions, because spending 100% of our time on this world is much better than wasting 6% of it in another one. Just like cigarettes, Netflix too can waste away your life.
Works Cited:
Franssen, Catherine. "The Netflix Addiction: Why Our Brains Keep Telling Us to Press Play."The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 9 Nov. 2015. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.
Luckerson, Victor. "This Is How Much Netflix We're All Watching Every Day." Time. Time, 19 Jan. 2016. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.
"How Much Sleep Do Babies and Kids Need?" Excessive Sleepiness. National Sleep Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2017.
Max Karpawich is a Sophomore at DS and a Staff Writer for Lamplighter.