S elenis Leyva was stunned. He had not been a day since the third season of Orange Is the New Black aired and people were already writing he had seen it all and was looking forward to the next.
It was June 11, 2015. Someone had gobbled the 13.5 hours of the season in a single day. And if you consider that Orange Is the New Black is the original series Netflix’s view, it probably would not have been just one person. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, if not millions.
That same year, in November, the dictionary Collins chose the term “Binge-watch” as the word of the year. The word means “to see a large number of television programs (especially all chapters of a series) in succession,” and according to lexicographers use increased by 200% in 2014
It was not. for less. Figures released by Netflix in 2013 indicated that 61% of users used the platform as well, and 73% described it as positive, even if it meant seeing two to six chapters of the same program in the same sitting.
with figures also attributed to Netflix, the portal 2machines.com asserts that three out of four people ended the seven episodes of the first season of Breaking Bad in one session. And the seasons two and three, with 13 episodes each, have higher rates of consumption in succession.
Seasons entire series are available from existing VHS and DVD. However, the new television can be seen from new platforms, digital, and in a different way, to the letter. Is there anything wrong with this?
The cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken , who worked on the aforementioned research Netflix says that this way of consuming television due to three elements: better content, the current economic climate, and the digital explosion. The three points are debatable points. To this the researcher adds that the modern viewer is different, which first have control over what they want to see.
The success of platforms like HBOGo, Hulu and Amazon lies in part in this. If earlier it was necessary to have on hand a TV guide and keep track of schedules and channel numbers, now just entering the global computer network and à la carte.
However, for others fields of knowledge the matter is not as simple as being able to choose, or not, what to see. In 2008, a study by psychologist Uri Hasson Princeton University evaluated the response of different brain regions of people against four different contents: a chapter of comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm; the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Bang! You’re dead, a chapter of the series Alfred Hitchcock presents, led by the eponymous filmmaker; and a video of a concert at Washington Square Park in New York.
The summary of the results of Hasson not only attests to the narrative skills of ‘Master of Suspense’, but also aims to one explanation of this saturation of content: Hitchcock shot the serial signals in 65% of the cerebral cortex of the study participants, compared to 45% of the good, the bad and the ugly; 18% of Curb Your Enthusiasm; and 5% of amateur video of the concert in the Square Park.
The quality of content is important. However, some argue that good television has always existed (from The Twilight Zone to The Wire, to Twin Peaks and The Sopranos), and statistics Netflix also point out that viewers tend not to ‘catch’ a series from the first chapter.
2015 figures analyzed how many episodes were needed for that 70% of viewers finish a full season of a series. In the case of Breaking Bad, most people were captivated after watching the second chapter (the season was seven), while in other series like How I Met Your Mother or Mad Men were needed to reach the episodes eight or six . (respectively) to be interested in completing the entire season
it seems that watching television this way is good for the industry: more and more programs adopt the model to publish full seasons in one day. Orange Is the New Black launch its fourth season in June this year and, predictably, all thirteen chapters will be available from day one. Added to this, a month ago, in February, it was confirmed that there will be five, six season, and up to seven.
Surely this will satisfy many fans. However, although their attachment ask them to see a chapter after another, with few breaks between episodes toileting or eating something, meet your TV needs could be worse than withdrawal.
Article of 2machines.com which analyzes figures Breaking Bad, Kat Ascharya says some neuroscientists believe that watching TV this way is a neurological compulsion, and produced the equivalent of a trance in the brain.
a recent study by the University of Toledo, in the United States asserts that there is a correlation between viewing chapters in succession and mental and physical poor health, and calls the “binge-watching” as a growing problem public health must be analyzed.
researchers surveyed 408 people, 77% of whom claimed to see two or more hours of television a week. Of the total, 35% was described as “binge-watcher”, and this group also reported higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression.
Correlation does not mean causation. “You could be depressed and then watch TV, or depressed after it,” he said Monita Karmakar , one of the authors of the study, the Canada AM chain. It could be, inclusively, that people are saddened by the level of affinity with the characters of the series. “We need more studies on the subject,” added
Quoted by The Guardian, the psychotherapist Hilda Burke referred to such practices as a risk. “Just like any addiction the problem lies in that people are turning away from something. Many of these programs are extreme, escapist [Breaking Bad or Narcos come to mind], and prevent them from living a particular moment in your life. “
In the academic article” TV addiction is not a simple metaphor, “the professor of journalism and media Robert Kubey and psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi compare this way of watching TV with the behavior of an addict:” it is more likely a tranquilizer that leaves the body quickly generate dependence than one that does slowly, because the user is more aware that the effect of the drug is decreasing. Similarly, viewers feel they are less relaxed if they stop it is a significant factor not turn off the screen. Consumption begets more consumption. “
As if that were not enough, not all applause in the industry. In his blog culture in Slate, Jim Pagels argues that this practice may addicting directors or writers of the series, and gives five reasons for this: each episode has an integrity of its own, which is diluted to see several in series; the “cliffhangers” [most suspenseful moments] need time to breathe; analysis of virtual communities provides an important insight; TV characters should do regular part of our lives, not just a flash of a few days; and maintain the line breaks television time.
It may be that immersion in these narrative universes is the gold mine of television or harmful practice most of the century. In either case, and if there are still four more of Orange Is the New Black, that Selenis Leyva be prepared so that fans do not forget to tell on launch day seasons: “I saw her. I look forward to the next “.
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