Binge-watching Netflix shows. I don’t think I can think of a better way to spend a rainy or lazy day. In fact, I just did this yesterday with The CW’s show Jane the Virgin (seriously ask my friends it was all I was talking about). I think most of us can say at least once in our lives we sat down to watch one episode and before we know it we’re ten episodes deep, and why would we stop there? But some recent studies have linked binge-watching to depression.
I’ll start out by saying this is a correlation not causation. Science.Mic distinctly points this out, making sure it is well-addressed that binging on your favorite show isn’t necessarily going to make you depressed. But UT-Austin researchers said that “the more lonely and depressed the study participants were, the more likely they were to binge-watch TV.”
Yoon Hi Sung, Eun Yeon Kang, and Wei-Na Lee chose to look at the subject because the word “binge” generally is referred
to in negative senses, such as with eating or drinking. The trio polled 316 people between ages 18 and 29 on how of often they watched TV, how much of that was binging (which in this study was defined as two or more episodes of any length) and how regularly they experienced feelings of “loneliness, depression, and self-regulation deficiency.”
They found that depression and binge-watching were correlated. The more lonely and depressed participants felt, the more likely they were to binge. They even found that participants usually binged TV to avoid these negative feelings, similarly to binge-eaters and drinkers. The researchers did not going into looking at causation at all, just finding an association, as they told Today
.
Lee said that this is just one of many new experiments on the technology behavior front, citing this particular study as just “exploratory research.”
Psychologist Frank Farley said that only 10% of the time people binged because of these lonely or depressed feelings. The study didn’t look into why we binge the other 90% of the time or what the difference is between binging The Walking Dead and Friends, for example.
Binge-watching is a very grey area because there isn’t necessarily set standards as to what constitutes binging, making it sort of difficult to have a universally accepted definition. Nolan Feeney looked into the time aspect and came up with:
“binge-watch: (v) to watch at least four episodes of a television program, typically a drama, in one sitting (bathroom breaks and quick kitchen snack runs excepted) through an on-demand service or DVDs, often at the expense of other perceived responsibilities in a way that can cause guilt.”
Science.Mic says that the last portion is key. This isn’t a national epidemic – yet – but it will be of interest to watch these behaviors as time goes on.
This observational and survey-based study does find a significant correlation. But as we learned, correlation is not causation. While binging may not be our best choice when it comes to TV watching, there isn’t really sufficient evidence at this point to cause an overwhelming amount of concern. So, as much as I don’t want to keep binging, I probably will…whoops.
I think most college students can relate to this post! I believe that people binge-watch TV shows for many reasons, whether it be simply because they really like a specific show, or are procrastinating, or are just bored and looking for some entertainment, etc. That doesn’t necessarily mean that binge-watching makes people depressed, as you said. A possible experiment could be having a random sample of participants binge-watch a show, and surveying them before and afterwards to see how their feelings/emotions have changed. If done well, this could show the immediate effects of binge-watching on the viewer.
With a topic such as this, I think causation and reverse causation could definitely occur. However, like you mentioned, this is merely a correlational study. However, a very large study would need to be done in order to determine as form of causation, and of course, there is always the potential for chance. Some people just enjoy binge-watching shows, while others may do so due to their mental health. A study would need to look into the typical lifestyle of the person, their levels of stress before and after, and their mental state. A number of third variables could be involved as well, making an experiment fairly difficult. I agree that people shouldn’t necessary quit binge-watching based on this study, unless of course it is greatly affecting other aspects of their lives.
I will have moments when I really want to do nothing, just sit in my bed and watch TV series but I do not feel lonely or depressed. The same thing happens to my roommate as well that she loves to watch Netflix TV series but she balances her time between study and relaxation quite well. It is good that you emphysizes several times in your post that correlation does not equal causation because depression and loneliness does not necessarily cause people binge-watching. So in this case, I think you could spend time doing some further research on what cause people to binge-watching. Does binge-watching related to stress? Or is there a third variable except depression and loneliness influencing people binge-watching?
This was a very interesting and relatable post. I think it was vital that you emphasized correlation does not equal causation in this situation. I feel that depression is often caused by a lack of human interaction, and these people would be much more likely to binge watch television programs over people who are often with others. Also, plenty of use binge watch TV shows in college and a large majority of the people I know are having the time of their lives. Nonetheless, this was a great post and I will definitely continue to pay attention to this topic as research continues!
Really interesting blog post- I like how you included class material and what we learned with correlation not proving causation. I think it is vital to note that not all binge-watchers are depressed because I know so many people who are criminal minds binge watchers and do not show any signs of depression. I also like how you incorporated the fact that it was an observational experiment, which tells us exactly that correlation does not prove causation. Really well written and interesting blog post!