How Binge Watching Is Bad for You

 


Just one more’ is affecting you.

Streaming endlessly through a variety of content is in trend. With any time, anywhere access to thousands of shows, movies there is real pressure to keep up with peers. 

Population all over the world, of all age groups, has their favourites to watch. Especially in COVID-19 pandemic, consumers have increased undoubtedly.

 Here, the important point forgotten is that it is for entertainment; it is for passing time; it is not compulsion; it is not your job, and it is not to be done keeping aside your work, studies.

 Research is increasing on binge-watching, considering the growth in this area. There are some harmful effects, affecting physical, psychological and emotional aspects of life.

 

1.    PHYSICAL:

We neither have a fixed position nor place nor time when it comes to binge-watching. These are harmful in many ways 

a.    Stress on the eyes: - Staring continuously the screen for hours, increases pressure on the nerves present in the eyes. Problems like dryness, itching, and redness arise, as the eyes are strained.

b.    Hearing capacity: - Lots of people, especially teenagers prefer headphones and earphones for privacy and focus while watching. Earphones are not recommended for prolong hearing as it may cause hearing problems later.

c.     Back problems: - Either sitting in weird positions or lying in new poses twists the posture of our body causing back pain and other problems.

 

2.    PSYCHOLOGICAL:

Binge-watching is like a drug. It creates pseudo-addiction- becomes a habit, hard to break. 73% of people stated they feel when they binge in a Netflix survey. 

a.     Stress: - People binge-watch whole season in one sitting. Pro-casting all the tasks on their schedule and what needs to be done needs to be done. The increasing backlog of work studies or tasks when finally dawns, leads to huge stress. 

b.    Anger issues: - Binge watching releases happy hormones (dopamine) which becomes an addiction. Like an addict, when denied, interrupted or forced to stay away due to whatever reasons, people lash out, yell, break or rebel in their ways.

 

c.     Living in reel life and depression: - The scenarios shown in movies, shows are seldom true. They are scripted and written based on sheer imagination of someone. But due to excessive consumption of such content, your brain starts to live in a different world. We expect them to happen. It gives a false hope – when hit by reality comes down crashing hard. We lose the real dreams and start to look upon reel dreams. These will eventually lead to anxiety and depression.

 

d.    Increased expectations and comparison: - The setup shown in movies and shows are interpreted as real by our brain. We try to copy house, clothes, body language and other things disregarding your condition. We compare your lives with your favourite character’s life. These may lead to differences in relationships. Then again, these unrealistic expectations lead to feeling dissatisfied with your lives, blaming people around for not behaving we expect, and complains of having hard luck. 

 

e.    Loneliness: - Shutting yourselves away in front of a digital screen, too bored to chat with anyone, too lazy and lost to go outdoors cumulates and results in, a habit of staying alone away from people.

 

3.    EMOTIONAL:

All the content consumption affects the morals and values at some level. There are many emotional stereotypes based on movies alone. Also, the shows we binge start to define your thoughts and emotions in many ways. The most harmful thing that is inflicted by binge-watching is 

Sleeping schedule: - Binge watching whole season by using the same excuse ‘this last one’ messes up with your sleep. Staying up all night, not sleeping at all or sleeping whenever is like trying to sabotage you. Undefined sleeping hours leads to health issues like indigestion, acidity, weight gain, wrinkles etc. It also leads to an imbalance in work life, personal life and social life. It affects your life from forgetfulness to sleeping in the workplace.

 Tip: - Binge watching is okay up to a limit. While enjoying the endless binge remember you have a life to live.

 Read More - Three Ways TV Affects Your Health

Written By - Nikita Jadhav