The Effects Of Binge Watching Streamed Media on College Students

Madelyne Majors, Clara Schlemeyer, Levi Perry, Patrick McKenney

Texas Tech University

        Entertainment has been important in society throughout the course of history. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen drastic advances in differing forms of entertainment and mass media. Young generations have been at the forefront of these advances in recent history. Today, many college students partake in an entertainment phenomenon known as binge watching. College students binge on streamed television; compromising other aspects of their lives.

The exact definition of binge watching is elusive, but it is not uncommon to converse with a college student who has watched his or her favorite program for twelve hours without break. The ultimate question is why do college students binge on streamed television programs like Netflix, Hulu, or On Demand? Uses and gratifications is a commonly studied paradigm in communications theory. Due to the creation of new media, uses and gratifications is resurging (Pittman and Sheehan, 2015).

Differences in social preference can help explain why binge watching is so popular. The terms introverted and extroverted are by no means unfamiliar. The introvert enjoys time with no other human interaction, and an extrovert thrives off of social companionship.  Stafford segmented audiences into two groups, Lone Wolves and Social Animals (Stafford 2004). The lone wolf binge watches to soothe loneliness and to receive a form of companionship. The social animal might binge with others in comradery (Pittman and Tefertiller, 2015). In either case, binge watching is seen as positive (Shannon-Missal, 2013). However, most people either do not believe that they binge watch for social reasons, or they do not truly realize the motivations for their binge viewing. The dominant motif for a person to binge watch is the entertainment value. Essentially, it is more engaging to view content in this way. In a factor analysis study conducted by Matthew Pittman and Kim Sheehan, individuals claimed to “strongly agree” with the following statements, “it is more entertaining that way,” “it is very entertaining,” “I feel more engaged when I binge watch,” “I feel more engaged with the characters when I binge watch,” and “binge watching helps me to follow the intricate story lines” (Pittman and Sheehan, 2015). These reasons were more strongly agreed upon during this study than any other motif for binge watching. The motivation for the majority of college students to binge watch streamed television is for engagement (Pittman and Sheehan, 2015). The intent behind the behavior is not negative, but the implications certainly are.

Binge Watching and its Effect on College Academics

Today's college students form the link between the Millennial Generation and Generation Z. This group, consisting of people born approximately between 1994 and 1998, are unique in the fact that they entered the world just in time to witness the death of analog technology, and grew up alongside the digital revolution (Matrix, 2014).  Most of these "in-betweeners" grew up on scheduled cable television, just like the generations before them. Around the turn of the century, digital cable gained popularity, closely followed by on-demand video, giving the consumer the ability to choose the content for the first time (Jenner, 2014). In 2007, Netflix introduces internet-streamed television, and by 2011, a mass exodus from traditional television had begun to occur (Jenner, 2014). Teenagers, college students, and young adults were among the first to make the switch to online streaming. The “all you can watch” structure of streaming providers led to the phenomenon known as binge watching.  Concerns have been expressed about the increasing prevalence of this addictive behavior, and as a relatively new idea in an ever-changing digital landscape, there is still much research to be done about its impact on consumers (Jacobsen and Forste, 2011). In 2014, Cassandra Winland, a doctoral student at Florida State University, conducted research on the effect of binge watching on college students' academics. 74 students from 13 different schools were given an anonymous online survey and asked to evaluate their academic performance and television watching habits. The results revealed several patterns. An inverse relationship was found between the students’ grades and the number of hours they spent streaming shows online. 72% reported having a subscription to an online streaming service, and a quarter of participants reported watching more than 8 hours a week. Nearly 60% responded that they believed online content was distracting for their academics, and almost 40% reported spending more time online than on their studies (Winland, 2014). However, it cannot be assumed that Netflix or any other streaming service are to blame for the decline in student engagement. While binge watching TV shows is tempting, it is ultimately up to each individual student to manage their time and take responsibility for their schoolwork.

Binge Watching as a Social Activity

In the study conducted by Theodore G. Peterson college students had vastly different ideas of what is considered binge watching. Some college students refer to binge watching as a “mindless escape”. One student said that it is considered a binge if you are “watching something continuously without doing anything else for several hours.” (Petersen, 2016). Other students say that binging takes them away and into someone else’s life for a short amount of time. Across the board students have agreed that binge watching is only a term related to television series and not movies because it is a different “experience” (Petersen, 2016). It is hard to make that claim especially now-a-days when there are 10 Star Wars movies, 8 Harry Potter movies and so on. There are other students that say that it isn’t about the number of episodes that were watched, it is about the state of mind that you are in when binging, one student claims that he enters a “trance, gets transfixed on what is going on in the show”. (Petersen, 2016)

                Binge watching is typically not viewed as a social activity, but there can be merit in binge watching a show. Most people believe that binge watching is for introverts who don’t have any friends but there can be a social aspect to it. One of the students in Petersen’s study stated that binge watching can make the watcher feel closer to someone that is far away by the two watching the same series and having something they would usually do when they are together. Another example of the social aspect of binging is that if there is a group of friends that get together and they all watch a show together and then talk about what is going on it creates a community amongst them. Another student mentioned that binge watching helped her meet people in college because she got connected with other viewers that were interested in the same things she was interested in. (Petersen, 2016) There are a lot of college students that just lay in bed and mindlessly watch Grey’s Anatomy or Gossip Girl but there are positive aspects that come out of watching a good show on Netflix.

Possible Benefits of Binge Watching

To highlight some of these positive aspects, a study conducted by Kira Oberschmidt at the University of Twente was incorporated. The author examines a variety of positive effects that come with binge watching Netflix. Specifically, the audience is introduced into a new perspective of the benefits and how they influence younger generations. While the study encompasses various pros and cons of binge watching platforms such as Netflix or Hulu, the focus on the benefits will be prioritized for the purpose of this reflection.

 In one particular len, the author illustrates the method through a term known as Compensatory Health Benefits that "refers to beliefs that people activate to ‘neutralize’ bad behavior, by making up for it with positive, good actions"(Oberschmidt 8). This suggests that instead of making bad decisions by going out to a bar or roaming around town with a shady crowd on a Saturday night, people are generally more inclined to binge watch their favorite TV show or movie and alleviate any opportunity for bad decisions to occur. Furthermore, binge watching acts as a stress relief in terms of taking one's mind off of prying concerns and instead of handling a crisis poorly, i.e alcohol binge drinking, that individual can escape reality without altering their state of mind. The study examines the relationship with binge watching between young students and other young adults that work full time. According to Oberschmidt, it is safe to say that it "can be hypothesized that students have a less strict schedule and can therefore take more time to binge-watch or compensate for consequences of this behavior" (Oberschmidt 21). In summary, students are more likely to be able to miss out on making poor decisions and are more likely to recover from the majority of consequences arising from binge watching their favorite show or marathon.

In conclusion, there are both positive and negative aspects to binge watching television shows. Binge watching may distract some individuals from getting their priorities straight or disrupt others sleep cycles and longevity. Some people claim that binge watching secludes people but there is in fact a social benefit. On the contrary, other studies have also shown that it may serve as an out for people wanting to temporarily escape from reality. Therefore, given the universal nature of a platform of entertainment, it is ultimately up to the individual with what he or she does with it and whether or not binge watching serves as a benefit or negative influence in their life.

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