The Dangers of Binge Watching

Among the greatest benefits of 21st century technology has been on demand television. As my son grows, I can only imagine telling him old war stories of how, “in my day we had to watch commercials and if something wasn't on at the time, we couldn't watch it. Gone are the days of consulting a TV Guide or watching a show one episode at a time. .

This is the era of DVR, Netflix and Hulu Plus. This is the era of marathon television watching sessions. This is a golden age of binge watching. While I love this golden age, I have recently realized the need to approach binge watching with caution and moderation.

The other day I woke up from a bad dream I can’t quite remember. The day before I felt off and the days that followed were the same. It was subtle, a slight touch of melancholy here, a tinge of regret for some long ago transgression there. I began to feel anxious, as if there were something wrong. For a moment I thought I had cancer. For an instance I had a strange craving for crystal meth, even though I have no idea what that might actually be like.

I searched my soul to find a reason for this melancholy, this strange affinity for pure blue crystal meth and the city of Albuquerque. Nothing had happened, there were no major changes in my life, no conflicts, nothing. What happened?

I checked my Netflix account. In the past week I had watched 35 episodes of Breaking Bad. It is a great show, among the most well written that I can recall. It is so good that it should come with a warning label. Warning: If you binge watch you run the risk wanting to manufacture crystal meth and call yourself Heizenburg.

Maybe I am just more susceptible than most to become caught up in artificially created television worlds. I had similar responses to The Walking Dead, where I began to formulate my plan of action for the Zombie apocalypse, or when I binge watched Battlestar Galactica and began to suspect that everyone around me was a cylon.

Or maybe, just maybe, this is a new challenge for a brave new world. The risks of binge watching are many. Some of these risks, like a sore behind, weight gain from a sedentary lifestyle or insomnia from staying up too late watching television, are obvious. The emotional risks are a bit more subtle.

Am I going to stop binge watching? Probably not. I enjoy the entertainment provided by television and the escape it provides from everyday problems. However, I will be more aware of the times when binge watching is not an escape from my issues. Indeed, binge watching can guarantee a  transfer to a world of even greater problems. In my real life, I may have issues paying the bills sometimes, but I have never had cancer, been kidnapped by deranged drug dealers or been forced to drive a Pontiac Aztec. Maybe the solution is to take a couple days off from Breaking Bad or binge watch something else entirely, a comedy perhaps.