I read an article that was released by Netflix that discussed how 61% of all of their streamers tend to binge watch a show regularly. Having so much time on my hands has allowed me to fall into that 61% category myself. Recently one of my favorite shows “Narcos” came out with a season 2 on Netflix, and my roommate and I watched all 10 episode within the span of 4 days. While we enjoyed our time, I couldn’t help to think that spending so much time binge watching a show could have any positive affects on our bodies. I mean it involves sitting in one spot for multiple hours, the light reflected on your eyes can cause straining, and you are isolated from the outside world. Besides those facts, I decided to research other health impacts that binge watching T.V. can cause to your body and what I found was extremely shocking.
Binge watching a show has several affects on the health of your body, ranging from becoming anti-social to an increased risk for heart disease, cancer and diabetes. An article on www.rd.com. summarized how if you are regularly sitting for long periods of time without a break can lead to heart diseases, cancer, and diabetes. This is because when you sit still your blood pumps slower and your muscles burn less fat which ultimately leads to fatty acids clogging your heart. So if you happen to be sitting for long periods of time watching a show, your risk for a heart disease increases.
The reason behind why Binge watching a show regularly can lead to diabetes is because it involves very little movement to no movement at all. An article on the causes of diabetes lists inactivity and sitting for long durations of time one of the leading reasons for people getting diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The lack of movement leads to burning calories a lot slower which adds up if you are binge watching a show for multiple hours, which increases the risk of diabetes.
Lastly, around 56% of people who binge watch shows rather watch them by themselves than with company and almost 100% of binge watchers, do so at their homes. Spending such a large chunk of time watching a T.V. series instead of going out and socializing can be un healthy for you and can lead to making you more anti-social. Now before you binge watch Narcos like I did, think of this article and most importantly the health of your body and the harm you may be causing to it.
Links:
https://media.netflix.com/en/press-releases/netflix-declares-binge-watching-is-the-new-normal-migration-1
http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2013/may/stand-up-for-health-sitting-too-much-does-harm.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/
Delete the “a/> in the link of my previous comment to go to the correct article.
I am also in that 61% of binge watchers so it’s scary to hear all the negative side effects of binge watching Netflix! I rarely watch live TV anymore so on multiple occasions I have watched an entire season of a show within the span of a few days meaning I was lying on my bed in front of my laptop for several hours. I could’ve guess the antisocial effect binge watching has on us but I had no idea about the risk for heart disease and diabetes. Next time I might decide to take a break and walk around in between episodes next time I’m watching my favorite show. I found an article that talks about further side effects such as the impact binge watching has on our mental health. Check it out to learn how it may even lead to anxiety and depression. <a href"https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/04/binge-watching-mental-health-effects-research"a/>.
I have also fallen into the trap of binge-watching. Whether it is a new show that has just come out, or I am re-watching my favorite episodes from The Office, I cannot seem to get up from the couch. Not only do I feel that bing-watching causes unhealthy habits and risks because of the constant sitting, but I find myself consistently munching on nearby food. A professor from the University of Houston conducted a survey of 591 students that showed a correlation between binging Netflix and poor eating patterns. The director of Health Promotion and Communication at Harvard explains that since our favorite show causes our minds to be distracted, we don’t interpret our body sending us the message that we are no longer hungry. I can say from personal experience that their statements are true because when I am sitting on the couch I don’t notice my bulging stomach, but about ten minutes after I leave my cozy spot I feel uncomfortably full. In the future I am going to try and slow myself down as I sit down to watch Netflix!
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/31/461594989/netflix-and-chew-how-binge-watching-affects-our-eating-habits
one thing that I found interesting was that the statement was from Netflix themselves. Second, I binge watch all the time which isn’t that good it could be spent doing something more productive. Many people love to binge watch and many people in our generation do. Never thought that diabetes could play a part however you breezed through that part and didn’t talk about it enough. I wish you touched base on it more. I also wish you talked more about science information that we went over in class. There is much that could have come up with correlation and it didn’t talk much about science. I also found this interesting article about how Netflix is linked to cancer also which I found interesting. This article also talked about how the Netflix causing cancer debate could go either way depending on the situation. http://acsh.org/news/2016/07/26/netflix-linked-to-cancer
I can completely relate to this article! Before I got Netflix, I didn’t understand how binge watching was a thing. Recently after I got it though, I understood the issue completely. I always made fun of my friends for sitting around and watching episodes on top of episodes of different shows. That was until I started Greys Anatomy. I watched 11 seasons in about 3 months. It got to the point where I was finishing a season in a week. Unlike some other people, was able to stop myself. I realized that school was my main priority but for some people, they can’t stop watching Netflix. For those struggling, here’s a link that contains some advice as to how to stop binge watching! http://lifehacker.com/how-to-break-your-netflix-binge-watching-habit-1745394858 Netflix can ruin you!!!
The “binge-watching” nature of Netflix is all too familiar to me. I have to admit that I have binge-watched more than 10 shows on Netflix, which is so unhealthy now that I’m actually thinking about it. I didn’t know that binge-watching had such harmful effects and increased the risk of heart disease. However, the reasoning behind it makes a lot of sense because of the minimal movement behind the idle nature of watching Netflix. I enjoyed reading this article about reasons why we can’t stop binge-watching: http://www.alternet.org/media/reasons-you-cant-stop-binge-watching
This blog immediately caught my attention because like many others I too find myself binge watching Netflix a little too often. Although I would like to respectfully disagree with this finding. I can see how it could cause some harm but not to the extent that is listed here. I don’t think binge watching a Netflix show is a true cause of diabetes or cancer there are definitely other main factors that go into the development of it. Maybe they contribute to the development but I do not believe binge watching can directly cause these diseases. Also there is definitely an anti social aspect of binge watching but that doesn’t mean you are a totally socially awkward person. I could go out every night of the week but choose to stay in one night to binge watch. That does not make me an anti social person. Overall I can see where this article is going but definitely does not have enough supporting facts to make me believe. I will probably continue to binge watch after finishing my homework tonight.
The first thing I found interesting was the fact that Netflix themselves released a statement regarding how many people binge watch their shows. It seems that binge watching is currently trendy in our generation, and therefore top companies such as Netflix are able to use such a harmful activity as a campaign strategy. I also think you could look at this from another angle. What about people who are positively influenced by binge watching? What if someone just needs to escape for a day or two and watches an entire series? Your claims of diabetes and cancer are very vague and could only possibly apply to serial binge watchers. I think you could fix this by adding specific studies involving binge watchers over a long period of time, such as a longitudinal study. I think if you are going to bring up such bold terms such as cancer and diabetes in association with watching television for a long period of time, you have to have a lot of proof to back that up. I think an easier thing to prove would be weight gain, as there are probably various studies done on this. For example, you could look at this article that correlates binge watching with overeating!