Binge-watching

Impacts health and the streaming business

ZOE MARIE ZAPANTA /ASST. OPINION EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

As streaming continues to rise in popularity, many people bring themselves comfort by sitting back and binging their favorite TV shows and movies. Streaming provides unlimited access to thousands of TV shows or movies, allowing us to watch anything our heart desires, commercial-free, at any time, day or night.

But this newfound freedom over how we get our entertainment has some harmful side effects. Watching television may not directly harm someone’s health, but it is connected: it causes behavioral patterns that produce health problems over time. If those patterns continue, it could cost streaming services subscriptions, which is why binge-watching is bad not only for your health but also for the streaming business. 

Many people only binge-watch occasionally. However, doing this regularly could affect a person’s health by inducing sedentary behavior, sleep problems and an unbalanced diet. According to a study in Medical News Today, sedentary behavior is defined as, “sitting or laying down with minimal movement.” The study says that consuming excessive amounts of television could cause high levels of sedentary behavior. It also features a 2020 review that examined 18 other reviews of studies of the relationship between sedentary behavior and health over 10 years. Researchers found links between sedentary behavior and several health problems, including depression, physical disability and reduced cognitive function.

Sometimes, I will stay up late to finish a show or movie. Recently, I’ve been watching “Scandal.” The show ended in 2018 and — with a total of seven seasons — I have a lot of episodes to catch up on. But in the midst of binging the show, I haven’t been prioritizing my sleep as much. A study previously published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that people who postpone their sleep to binge-watch reported more fatigue, more symptoms of insomnia, poorer sleep quality and greater alertness prior to going to sleep. Based on my own experience, I’d have to agree with those findings. 

With more time sitting, mixed with a lack of sleep, an unbalanced diet caused by binge-watching is inevitable. Binge-watching can affect peoples’ diets through behaviors that they display during long periods of sitting, such as snacking or eating low-nutrition meals. 

Lilian Cheung, director of health promotion and communication at Harvard School of Public Health says, “there’s convincing evidence in adults that the more television they watch, the more likely they are to gain weight or become overweight or obese.” She adds that the sedentary nature of prolonged viewing contributes to binge-watching being harmful

“TV viewing may also promote poor dietary behavior due to frequent exposure to unhealthy food and beverage marketing, as well as providing more opportunities for unhealthy snacking, and interfering with adequate sleep,” she said.

Despite these drawbacks of binge-watching, there are some benefits to it. For example, binge-watching promotes socializing, which is integral and healthy for humans. 

“A lot of people use binge-watching as a social connection,” said Eileen Anderson, a medical anthropologist at Case Western Reserve University whose research focuses on the well-being of young adults in changing cultural environments. She adds that, “it’s a way to have a shared experience,” especially since binge-watching connects people that aren’t always together physically. 

The desire to binge stories is also part of what makes us human. We love stories. According to the Atlantic, “Humans are inclined to see narratives where there are none, because it can afford meaning to our lives, a form of existential problem-solving.” Key elements of streaming today are superb production and masterful storytelling (for example, Peaky Blinders, Game of Thrones, Succession), so it is not a surprise that people are drawn to the activity. While human connection is integral to our lives, there are other ways to connect with people. That is why it is important to prioritize your health and avoid binge-watching. 

  Regardless,  this particular format of storytelling can prove harmful to the very streaming services that promote it. According to Pedro Ferreira, a professor at Heinz College and Carnegie Mellon University, binge-watching is a central part of the subscription video on-demand business model.“Subscription platforms promote binge-watching, because it keeps the customer in front of the screen,”  Ferreira explained. “When one episode ends, the next one automatically starts. Also, the way these stories are written makes them better consumed in this manner. The storytellers take into account that you’re not going to watch one episode per week, you’re going to watch several back-to-back.” 

I don’t know what I am going to do when I finish ‘Scandal’ and many people like me that do participate in binge-watching are likely asking themselves the same question: what’s next? Ferreira’s study found that, for certain shows, if people can finish them in the free trial period, they are less likely to renew for a full subscription. If people are not renewing their subscriptions after they binge-watch, then the streaming services won’t be profitable.  

Binge-watching isn’t going anywhere. But these problems are not necessarily unresolvable. You can start by making a plan of how many episodes or how many hours you’re going to watch, have some healthy snacks around, and prioritize your sleep. 

As   for   the  streaming business, Ferreira suggests capitalizing on a recommendation system. Having suggestions of related content    when  finishing a    show    or  movie   might just create a steady pace of engagement between the consumer   and   the    platform, and these firms would   no   longer   have  to race   to put   out   new   content. So before   you  pass  the  popcorn   and  start   your   next   binge,   keeping these things  in   mind   just might save   you   from   falling   down   the rabbit   hole of   binge-watching.