Binge watching seems harmless, but virtual addictions could be altering our sense of reality.
The United States is a proud nation of bingers. We want more of everything and we don’t ever want to stop. And while such an attitude has landed many of our best and brightest at the heart of groundbreaking discoveries, where is it leaving the rest of us?
Though the act of binging can apply to just about anything, the most common affliction seems to be entertainment via screen. There is no true way to determine the cost, aside from subscription fees of course, of our entertainment addition. But is it so far out of line to say that as each hour of watching time ticks by our perception of reality is being altered?
In a report released more than 30 years ago, the National Institute of Mental Health identified the major effects seeing violence on television has on children. These included, but were not limited to, children becoming less sensitive to the pain of others, children being more fearful and more likely to behave aggressively toward others.
The majority of adults, myself included, who watched any level of violent television as children do not ‘channel’ what was viewed. But has our level of exposure to brutality, crime, and even death in the fictional world left us desensitized to those acts in reality?
You can spend an entire evening watching two men violently beat each other in a metal octagon for $99.99 or spend a day binge-watching Making A Murderer on Netflix. Yet, so many are still shocked to read about fights in local schools or shootings at a mass level.
According to a list posted by Entertainment Weekly, 26 of the 50 most watched broadcast shows of 2014-2015 depict some amount of violence and/or crime. In addition, three of the broadcasts on the same list were American football related, a sport that, especially as players become stronger and faster, could arguably be classified as violent as well.
Curious as to the occurrence rate of violent or criminal activity in any one of the previously mentioned 26 shows, I recorded how often I witnessed such behavior in a single episode of a show that has long since been my binging addiction. The results showed that in just over 40 minutes, I witnessed nearly 20 incidents of violence (armed and unarmed), criminal activity and death. As a fan that has seen every episode of this show, which is in its 17th season, I cannot fathom the amount of violence, crime and death I have seen, nor can I say how it has affected me. And that is only one show.
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It is imperative that while we continue to enjoy the shows we love, to understand what we are learning from them and how they are changing us. When the virtual crime, violence, and bloodshed we all witness, often with a bowl of popcorn or a favorite snack, becomes reality, do we react as we should or as we have been shown?
Anna Ayers is a freshman studying journalism and finance. Email her at aa183414@ohio.edu.
