Time to hit the pause button!

Work hard, party harder — that was the motto of one’s weekend routine earlier. If you are not a party-goer, you would just go on with your usual shopping outside, meeting friends and engaging in other outdoor activities. The routine has changed. It’s another weekend and right out of bed you go get a bowl of your favourite snack, sit in your cozy couch and throw a blanket around. 

Then, you open your laptop and start watching your favourite sitcom which you had downloaded the previous night. There goes your marathon Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, How I met your mother — some of the most popular sitcoms with a captivating storyline that keeps the fans on the edge. Most interestingly, some online news portals are also giving tips to marathon watching or as it’s more casually known as — binge -watching.

This behaviour is most observed among youth and Malayalis especially have a taste for anything that rouses curiosity. Capitalising on this trend are global providers such as Netflix and torrentz. Roji Abraham, author and an IT professional based in Bengaluru, says, he used to be a binge watcher, but had to stop it for engaging in other productive activities. “I started binge watching because I used to look for highly rated TV series and then start watching them. Such shows are usually very well made, captivating and have a continuous storyline unlike comedy soaps where each episode is a different event.

The gripping narratives force one to binge watch because the viewer is unable to stay put without knowing what happens next. The last time I watched a TV series like that I had sat for 12 hours a day on a weekend and played episode after episode. Eventually I stopped binge watching, refusing to start with another TV series, except Game of Thrones. But, I watch this as each episode gets released so the question of binge watching doesn’t arise,” he says, adding he stopped the habit due to time wastage.

“The average TV series will have at least 5-6 seasons and anywhere between 12-24 episodes per season. Considering that each episode is around 20-40 minutes in length, it means binge watching one entire TV series takes away approximately between 40-110 hours of my week!” Sharon Philips, a travel consultant based in Bengaluru,  is a huge fan of Game of Thrones, and started the binge-watching habit after getting influenced by her friend. “I don’t regret spending time for entertainment. My friend  and I engage in binge-watching like it’s a competition. There are times when I binge watch through the night, completing many seasons in a weekend.”

“It’s an extension of the download-and-watch culture that's rampant among youth. In the case of sitcoms, it induces a compulsion to see everything together. These binges ruin the ability to regulate screen time. It invades your free time and even compels one to stay awake at night. For the record, we started getting consultation requests from students who are addictive to this sedentary culture. But, in the case of adults this becomes a part of their work culture,” says C.J. John, chief psychatrist of Medical Trust in Kochi.

Sneha Shankar and her husband Raghav Ramnarayan, who engage in binge watching together, have a different take. “It has helped us spend more time together and have more conversations, discussing the future plots on what could be the scenarios. It is fun to have that kind of vibe with your partner when your interests are the same,” Sneha says.