Changing my TV Habits

I’m changing up my TV habits.

The thing is, I realised fairly recently quite how many hours I spend watching TV shows and it is honestly shocking. It’s my default to ‘put something on in the background’, and whilst I still do this with YouTube videos or music, there’s more of a feeling of being able to dip in and out of things.

A TV series is a commitment.

Once I’m into a programme, I need to watch every episode. I need to know when the new season starts. I need to watch the latest episode before anyone on Twitter spoils it for me.

And the problem with Netflix is there’s always a new series to watch. And all of the episodes are ready and waiting. Binge-watching has almost become a sport.

The release of a new season of Orange is the New Black leads to the update tweets of how many episodes people have stormed through by the end of the first morning. And it can be hard to turn down that temptation when the next episode is all cued up and ready to go.

You don’t even need to move; it autoplays in fifteen seconds.

A few months ago, I looked at the amount of TV shows I was watching or waiting to return. And I looked at the shows I had started watching on Netflix to fill in the gaps between episodes of shows I had to wait a whole week to see the next episodes of. And the amount of hours that viewing time adds up to is just ridiculous.

So I then thought about which of those TV shows I actually love, and look forward to, and which I watch because I’ve got into the routine of doing so, or even more commonly, because I was bored.

And again, I was pretty shocked.

And I cut back.

I’ve not quite cancelled Netflix. I’m just finishing one show I’m watching currently, but then that’s it.

And when it comes to TV shows running in ‘real-time’, I’d say I’ve cut back what I watch by about four-fifths. And I still watch plenty!

I think what I’m trying to say is that I’ve been doing some re-assessing of how I’m spending my time.

And I spent a lot of hours mindlessly watching things I wasn’t even fully engaged in.

I’d rather use that time to do something else, thanks very much.


Have you done anything similar, or are you a TV fiend?

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