Binge Watching

Binge Watching is watching multiple episodes of a television show in a row, typically through digital streaming or DVDs . The practice of binge watching has become incredibly popular in today's society, with 61% of people saying that they regularly binge watch in a study done by Netflix in 2014 . While the term binge watching has been used since the late 1990s by the circles of television fandom, it was not widely used until the term exploded in usage in 2013, even working its way onto the short list for the Oxford Dictionaries' Word of the Year that year .

History

Binge watching began with box set DVD releases of television shows in the late 1990s; however, it was not fully popularized until the creation of on demand viewing services and online streaming sites . These streaming sites, such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc. publish full seasons of television shows, both from television networks and sometimes original content, and allow users to watch as many episodes of the show at a time as they want. This allows for people to watch as much of these shows as they want to, leading to binge watching. Netflix has offered online streaming since 2007, winning Emmy nominations and awards for its own original shows released in 2013. It has been a worldwide service since 2016 . Hulu launched as a streaming service in 2008 and has also created its own original shows, one of which has been nominated for a Golden Globe . Amazon Video began as Amazon Unbox on TiVo, a service to download videos onto a TiVo . The video service was rebranded as Amazon on Demand, then as Amazon Instant Video in 2011, free to Amazon Prime users and poised to take on Netflix and Hulu . More recently, television networks have begun following this model as well, posting entire seasons of shows on their online platforms. For example, the network Freeform put their entire 10 episode season of the show "Beyond" online and were ready to approve a second season within eight days .

Watching TV vs Binge Watching

In the Netflix study done in 2014, 73% of people defining binge watching as watching 2-6 episodes of the same television show in one sitting . The Atlantic, however, crowd sourced to define binge watching as watching 4 or more episodes in one sitting, claiming that 2 episodes were too few to describe as a "binge" . One person watched 120 episodes in 4 weeks, which comes to just over 4 episodes per day, while another watched 29 episodes in 2 weeks, or 3.5 episodes per day . The consensus seems to be that somewhere between at least 3 or 4 episodes in one sitting constitutes binge watching and not just watching TV.

Culture

Netflix Binge Pairings

While most people see binge watching as something done by millennials, it is consistent across generations, although more prevalent in ages 18-34 . While watching a few episodes might constitute binge watching, many people will watch an entire series in one or a few sittings. It is then common practice to take a "breather," or a break of at least a day, between shows. The average break size is 3 days. In this break, many people will turn to movies to continue watching something without starting a new show, with these movies often staying within the genre of the show they just finished .

Ethical Implications

Many people share passwords for these online streaming sites, allowing multiple people to use one account and watch as much as they want.

There have also been issues with streaming sites being slowed down by internet providers, such as Comcast slowing Netflix.

Binge watching can be distracting and keep people from other tasks that they're supposed to partake in, such as homework or other obligations.