Photo: Courtesy of Netflix.The numbers don't lie. And, a recent Netflix survey totally has ours. It reports that a whopping 61% of users routinely binge-watch (a.k.a. take in at least two or three episodes in a row). As for a little show called Breaking Bad? Three-fourths of users who started watching season one finished it in a single sitting — that's about seven hours, guys. Anyone else curious as to exactly why we've taken on this habit?
Mashable looked at some studies that explain the science behind our ways. A Princeton University psychologist, who studies the brain's responses to TV and film, has an interesting idea. He examined viewers' responses to four different video clips, and "concluded that the more 'controlling' the clip — those that showed the viewer exactly what they're supposed to pay attention to — the more focused the audience." And, 65% of the time, participants' brains responded to these so-called controlling clips in the exact same way. So, today's shows suck us in because of their ability to dictate what all of us are thinking and feeling while we're watching them.
Furthermore, another study showed why we're tuning in to these engaging shows in the first place. For 76% of users,"bingeing was a welcome refuge from their busy lives...Instead of dealing with the day's stresses by zoning out, we'd rather become engrossed in an entirely different (and fictional) world," the psych. told Mashable. We're gonna go ahead and say we're guilty as charged. Now, pass the remote. (Mashable)