Are You Still Watching? Well Stop

By David Astudillo

^{This feature story touches upon the issues that college students face when streaming video content. This story provides some ways that students could prevent these distractions from occurring.}

College is a place that allows students to experience their first taste of freedom. This freedom might have some unforeseen consequences as students struggle to limit their screentime. We’ve all heard the siren call of Netflix while we’re supposed to be completing a project. We have all seen the constant menu screen that reads, “Are you still watching “[Title Name]”? This is just one of the many formulas that Netflix uses to keep viewers watching. 

In a time in which people want what they want when they want it, this is like a utopia of entertainment and content. The number of viewers who repeatedly binge-watch is increasingly high for college students. According to NBC12, millennials are on track to watch about 13 years of their lives watching Netflix. A survey done revealed that these millennials spent six hours of streaming shows per day. This survey reveals a frightening look at a generation in which productivity is tied inextricably to an ability to resist.

One of the many techniques Netflix uses to keep viewers watching is its vast catalog of original content to stream. According to Statista, as of 2018, there were approximately 1,500 hours of content to watch on Netflix. This number is only counting the streaming platforms’ original content which they have kept pushing out since 2018 and is only allowing its catalog to grow. If someone would want to watch all of this, it would take a total of 62 days to watch. 

According to The Guardian, one of the many reasons why students get caught in this binge-watching cycle is due to the auto play style that Netflix has after every series episode of a show. This method allows for viewers to continuously watch their favorite shows without putting any effort into putting the next episode. 

When students have a screen in front of them and are binging a good show, it is difficult for them to stop playing episodes as they keep cycling through shows. This simple method is known as autoplay which Netflix uses to capitalize on its viewers as it keeps the screen on at all times and allows there to be an unstoppable amount of time watching shows. It can either be Nirvana or Purgatory: everything you ever wanted, or a trap from which there is no escape. 

Hit shows on Netflix such as Stranger Things have mastered the ability to release content for the viewer. According to Statista, a majority of viewers were Gen Z members but there are still a major portion of adults who view this popular show. According to NBC News, a total of 361,000 people binge-watched all episodes of season 2 the first day of release. By releasing seasons at once this gives viewers the ultimate power to control how they want to watch their favorite show without commercial breaks such as a television show might have. 

This power that Netflix has created does not only mean a loss for television but a loss for a lot of students’ social lives and time. As a college student, I fear that students will spend time during college being unproductive instead of seeking opportunities after school. These ongoing distractions that Netflix causes can be unhealthy at times with students only concerned about watching shows rather than other things that could be getting them out of their dorms into productive student lives. 

From my own personal experience, I understand how difficult it may be to stop watching a screen given the many episodes of a series I can indulge in. Although given these difficult circumstances with streaming platforms such as Netflix there should be some moderation when streaming to combat poor time management. According to Niklas Göke, by installing a chrome extension titled Stay Focused this can help students with their exaggerated time of watching Netflix by setting a time limit to the site. After the time limit has been reached for the day on a particular site this extension will block the sites for the rest of the day. This extension will allow students to spend less time on their time-wasting websites such as Netflix and be more productive each day.