The Effects of Binge Watching on Your Health

Many people have a varied opinion whether binge-watching is an acceptable behavior although negative perceptions have been decreasing since 2013 due to social acceptance and media influence. However, excessive watching of TV is linked with health problems such as risks of obesity and other chronic diseases. Other mental problems include depression and loneliness. Effects of binge-watching on health Show fans around the world have had to be patient and wait for their favorite shows’ episodes to be aired again in the next week. However, this may become a thing of the past as waiting is being done away with. Bill Ward says that social pressure is the factor as there is the ‘need to catch up’. Research has revealed that viewers form parasocial relationships with television characters as they view them as mirror characteristics of actual social interactions.

A parasocial relationship is a relationship between the members of the audience and the how they perceive certain scenes in the movie. These relationships with media characters provide a buffer against feeling lonely and create a sense of belonging. Parasocial relations act as extensions for real social relationships instead of replacements. In real relationships, people experience depression due to break up of the contacts. These findings indicate that those who view movies for instrumental purpose score higher in depression levels Psychological well-being of a person is outlined in six dimensions; positive associations with others, purpose in life, autonomy, environmental mastery, self-acceptance and personal growth. Personal well-being is attributed with the dimensions including, beliefs and attitudes towards self, the surroundings, and others.

Findings showing the relations between ones self-being and frequency of watching televisions showed that those who watched more TV had inferior wellbeing subjectivity compared to those who watched TV fewer times. Life satisfaction and happiness are intellectualized as subjective well-being while psychological well-being is the awareness of one potential. Robert Oexman, Sleep to Live Institute director states that lack of quality sleep affects the body beyond two weeks. This includes a decrease in alertness, lower functioning than one ability, poor concentration in office and behind the wheel. Moreover, a person experiences a decrease in the strengths of the immune system and not being able to fight colds. The decrease in the speed of processing information increased the risk of heart diseases, stroke, and cancer.

Oexman shows that lack of enough sleep due to binge-watching affects one health. It is a recent television behavior that involves watching several episodes of a single television show over a concentrated period of time. Recent research has indicated that more than 80% of television consumers prefer and practice this binge viewing. This behavior, although preferred by many, has many negative effects on consumer’s health. Research indicates that when one remains motionless in front of a television screen for a long period of time, they have a high risk of developing the chronic disease that might lead to death at the early age. Research that was published by the “American Journal of Preventive Medicine” published in December 2015 found that spending an average of four hours daily binge-watching television shows increases a person’s risk of death due to chronic disease by about 15 percent in comparison to those who watch television shows for less than one hour a day.

S. with basic TV services conjointly take Amazon, Hulu, or Netflix as of December 2015. Netflix has got forty million subscribers in the U. S. alone, sixty-one percent of whom report binge-watching television shows a minimum of once a month, consistent with printed information from Netflix. This, perhaps, is an unreasonable discovery given the inflated quality of binge look. However, this clear discrepancy could also be resolved by distinguishing between the supplier and also the show. As indicated on top of, binge-watchers exhibit inflated gratification for the television show supplier for example Netflix. However, this can be completely different than the viewer’s satisfaction with the television program show being watched. The results counsel that, though people could acknowledge the chance to binge-watch, this enjoyment might not be mirrored by how the show itself is rated.