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My inspiration

During Dr. Wranovix lecture he discussed how during the black plague people gathered and told stories to escape from all of the horror going on around them. The stories were often comical and even inappropriate at times but it made them happy in such horrible times.(13:20) This got me thinking how it is any different what many people did during quarantine. People turned to streaming channels such as Netflix, Hulu and others to binge watch shows and escape from reality just as the people during the black death when they told their stories.

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Different Perspectives Streaming during Quarantine

I decided to test my idea by I would interview some of my friends and family on their own experience. They were different ages which I thought would give different perspectives on the topic.

I asked them some simple questions such as…

How did your watching habits change during quarantine?
How did it make your experience better or worse?
Did you find yourself following trends of shows that everyone was watching?
Did you find yourself watching things that you normally wouldn't?

I also let them just express anything else they felt about the topic.

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Danielle’s perspective

Age: 17

Danielle said that she watched an excessive amount of netflix while she was in quarantine. A lot more than she usually would. She felt that it was a good distraction and kept her busy while she was stuck in the house. She often found herself binge watching the most random shows that she normally would never click on. Although she did say that she felt it did make her lazy because she would spend hours in bed watching tv because there was not much else to do. Like many other kids her age Danielle did find her self following certain trends such as outer banks and money heist.

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Kierans Perspective

Age:6

Kieran watched so much tv because he did not have to go to school. He had more control over his youtube and netflix accounts because his parents let him watch a lot more tv than usually. He explained it made up for not seeing his friends but not completely. Although watching tv never got boring to him. He said he watched a lot of new shows that he normally wouldn’t have too because he had so much free time on his hands.

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Jen’s Perspective

Age: 51

Jen said that she watched the news more than anything which did the opposite of escaping reality but did make her feel more informed. She also watched a lot of other shows that were lighthearted that helped get her mind off of things. She didn’t really feel like she followed the trending shows at the time. Jen really did not watch shows that she normally wouldn’t because even though she was home she still felt busy.

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Research on increase of streaming for Netflix during Quarantine

While other companies were losing money drastically during quarantine netflix was doing better than ever. On average netflix users were watching 3.2 hours a day while in 2019 it was an average of about 2 hours. One example of how trends formed was Tiger King. When it was released over 34.4 million viewers watched in the first 10 days. Also during the virus Netflix stock rose to a high of $426.75 in April. This was higher than it ever was before.

https://www.tvinsider.com/933154/netflix-statistics-quarantine-viewing-habits/

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Conclusions

From all of this I can conclude that people did use streaming sites to escape what was going on around the world. People even bonded over it, like how it was a huge trend to watch the crazy show Tiger King. It makes you wonder if they had Netflix during the black plague would they be doing the same thing? Or what would we do if we had no Netflix and were in their shoes?