As the weather gets much colder and there is less of a need to go out for the night, many turn to Netflix or Hulu, and watch tv shows or movies for the night. Some even enjoy the show so much they begin to watch episode after episode and find themselves binge watching. Young adults or millenials should be careful when doing this, there was a study that linked cognitive impairment with young adult binge watching. Researchers analyzed data from a 25-year-long study of more than 3,200 18-to 30-year-olds and found that those who reported doing less physical activity and watching the most TV (more than 3 hours a day) had the worse cognitive functioning before reaching mid age.
Participants of the study with the most TV viewing, and less exercise were more likely to perform badly on brain performance assessments compared to their peers. Researchers expanded this study even further, by taking a look at different types of screening behavior and not limiting the study to just television. They looked at the time spent using computers, hand held devices, and videogames.
Looking at this study, I found this quite interesting and a bit alarming, just because many young adults watch Netflix, and many binge watch their favorite shows. I remember watching more than 10 episodes of “Breaking Bad” in one day just because it was such a good show and new at the time. However, I did not realize the damage I was causing to my brain and neutral functionality. Binge watching is indeed making us dumber according to science.
This would be considered a correlational study/observational study. This would be direct causation, but not reverse causation and there are third variables involved. There are possiblities that binge watching and not exercising can cause other conditions such as obesity, poor heart health, and depression. It is not just an effect on the brain. In summary, if you binge watch, remember to excersise and not binge watch shows often because unhealthy behaviors in young adulthood could lead to more serious behaviors or results in actual adulthood.
Works Cited:
http://time.com/4130883/tv-sitting-cognitive-decline/
http://hellogiggles.com/binge-watching-making-us-dumb/2/
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Perhaps that instead of binge watching it has to do with physical activity. Recently I have been following a 25 year study in which television affecting cognitive function had to do with how active a person is in affects on cognitive function , so maybe instead of binge watching just throw in a little cardio in between episodes.
As a binge watcher, I often spend many nights regretfully watching the T.V late at night with no regard to my 9 A.M class the next morning. However, I caution you to make the conclusion that binge watching leads to cognitive harm. Observational studies cannot establish a cause and effect. Furthermore, I believe that there are a plethora of confounding variables that may skew the data. Around what time do most kids binge watch? Staring at a bright screen late at night must have some detrimental affect to the brain. However, does this effect extend to binge watching during the day? I’d like to see the effects of binge watching on a physical and cognitive level. I like how you included the personal anecdote because you are a college student, one of the groups of people that binge watch most often. Overall, I really enjoyed reading your blog it was very relevant to me and interesting to read.
This blog post applies to I think just about every college student. Extremely interesting and very true, as I’ve often caught myself watching episode after episode. Particularly, watching television before bed has known to cause serious effects on sleep, by halting your brain’s shutdown processes when preparing for sleep. A WebMD article shows that the light from the tv can cause electrical activity and neurons to race in the brain, hindering you from falling asleep or getting tired.