Study Says Binge Watching TV Makes It Less Memorable and Enjoyable

I think many of you are missing the social interaction aspect of this study. If you binge an entire season and then talk to friends about it there's not nearly the enjoyment or anticipation compared to watching a single episode near the same time as your friends and then dissecting and sharing the things you and they missed.
 
DoubleTap said:
My biggest issue with regular TV is that when you find a new show you like, it's canceled after the 1st, 2nd or 3rd season - and the more you like it, the more likely they are to cancel it without a proper wrap up. I prefer not to watch shows on streaming when there is only one season then it's canceled. I'd much rather find something with 3-7 seasons so you can dig in.
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Especially when they spend most the last season building up to a cliff hanger, and then cancel the show.
 
otherweeb said:
I think many of you are missing the social interaction aspect of this study. If you binge an entire season and then talk to friends about it there's not nearly the enjoyment or anticipation compared to watching a single episode near the same time as your friends and then dissecting and sharing the things you and they missed.
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The social component doesn't factor in to whether I think a show is good. I binged Narcos Season 3 over the three day weekend but I haven't chatted or messaged with anyone else about it. Or watched any of those silly YouTube episode recaps afterwards. But not talking about it or seeing folks talk about it doesn't diminish my enjoyment.

What binge watching does elminate- are single episode re-watches. Sometimes I re-watch the current Rick and Morty episode a couple of times while waiting for the new one. Same goes for Game of Thrones and Handmaid's Tale. Sometimes you re-watch because the ep was good, sometimes because you missed something, sometimes because you were bored.
 
Dk975 said:
I agree with this. When I binge watch Netflix, I don't tend to remember as much as when I watch a single episode or just a couple of episodes. I watch House of Cards, and I can only sit there and watch maybe 2 episodes in a sitting. I think my brain needs time to process each episode, and binge watching doesn't allow that to happen. The real problem is waiting almost a full year for Netflix shows to come back, as I forget what happened at the end of the previous season.
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I think it depends on what your definition of binge watching is. I too only watch 2 episodes of any show at a time before I just get tired. I mean I dont want to lay on the couch for 3+ hours at a time anyway. I'm only on Ep4 of Narcos but thats 4 episodes. Per HBO's standards thats an entire month's worth of viewing over the span of one weekend. I know some people will watch 6 episodes of something back to back but thats too much. However declaring that weekly releases are better is like saying any 2 hour movie should be divided into 30 minute chunks.
 
The only show I've recommended to binge was 24. I kept getting lost and found that after I rewatched an entire season made it A LOT more enjoyable.
 
Binge Pawn Stars the guys at work do and watch chumlee lose weight at the same time.
 
sooooo the 2014 survey qualified binge watching as two to six episodes in one sitting. two? really? i spend less than 1 hour watching two half hour shows (which are really only 20 minutes each) back to back and im now binge watching? uh... just..... no.

then we have the current study in which the show is selected by those doing the study- not those doing the watching. i am not going to retain anything from a show that i dont really want to watch at that given moment which they fail to take into account. the study would have been MUCH different had those participating selected a show they actually wanted to watch rather than having a show thrown at them. not only that, they had to go to this guys lab to watch the show, not sit in their normal surroundings feeling comfortable - a lab where human nature being what it is will make every little tiny squeek and blinking light a distraction.
The study is valid... the problem is that the study has nothing to do with binge watching and everything to do with how brains and memory work... and from there they are just twisting it to say what they are wanting it to say so that it can be applied (ever so badly) to binge watching.
 
My idea of binge watching is two or three episodes per day, often separated by doing something else between episodes. Repeat for the next several days. Good way to catch up on shows I missed the first time around or want to watch without the damned commercials and/or id bugs.
 
travisty said:
Most TV is crap. I've honestly given up on american media.

I've binged anime and the good ones - Code Geass - is stellar whether watched week by week or binged. FLCL (aka Fooly Cooly) same, though at only 6 episodes it's easy. Others like Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! are better week to week as too much of this gets old.
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I looked those up and all I can say is there truly is no accounting for taste.

I'm not a big fan of lasers and space ships but I like story driven sci-fi and the Travellers show on Netflix was excellent. Watched it when it first came out and can't wait for season 2.

This is the other problem though - a new season comes out, you polish it off in a week or so and now you have to wait basically a year for another 10 hours. Then when it does come back, you watched it so fast that it can be hard to remember where you left off and what was happening.
 
Another thing that I haven't seen mention is that most TV (besides period settings) tries to keep up with and reflect (some say "drive") the culture.

I like legal dramas a lot and while I never considered watching it before, based on a trusted recommendation, we started watching "The Good Wife". There were things they said in the show that you remembered as being contemporary with Obama administration ("hey, we're in a post-racial world now!") that seem starkly out of context just a few years later. The smaller details were interesting as well - like watching 7 years of cell phone evolution happen right before your eyes.
 
Comixbooks said:
TVs flicker more than anything know to man they just flicker everytime they change the angle showing something off on a commercial. You wonder what that does to a persons brain after a while gives them ADD. The same reason slot machines and gambling are so addice the false notion of a actual payout after the light arouse you and play with the reward center of the brain.
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Yeah, that's not a thing. Flashing lights don't permanently alter your neurotransmitters or reuptake inhibitors or delay the development of executive functions.
 
DoubleTap said:
Yeah, that's not a thing. Flashing lights don't permanently alter your neurotransmitters or reuptake inhibitors or delay the development of executive functions.
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Try it on Full Brightness once =) for 16 hours a day and watch all commercials for about 10 years straight.
 
depends on the show and the person

ime it's true with Breaking Bad (I liked it but can't remember why and it was only last year lol), Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Cuts (was always glad when it was over - yea I tried to watch this a few times)...

On the other hand, I still enjoy re-binge-ing Fire Fly (short and sweet), Six Feet Under (a lot of shifting plot and character development), Northern Exposure (nostalgia mostly), and maybe a few others...
 
DoubleTap said:
This is the other problem though - a new season comes out, you polish it off in a week or so and now you have to wait basically a year for another 10 hours. Then when it does come back, you watched it so fast that it can be hard to remember where you left off and what was happening.
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I just rewatch the prior season just before the new one releases. Stranger Things 2 cannot come soon enough.
 
oh I just finished watching Season 3 Twin Peaks, I bet it's better if binged
 
Sounds like this study just figured out how we already knew human memory works.


Cram sessions = short term retention, but lacks long term retention. You may remember it for the exam, but you won't remember it for the final.
Spaced sessions = some short term retention, but better long term retention. The reason is that you're accessing a recall of prior information (prior learning sessions). These "recalls" - especially those without helper agents (triggers, like a note card) - strengthen the links of the memory, thus giving it longer term retention.

We learn better with heightened awareness, long sessions of viewing can put you in a dazed but watching state. This is why when I study, I do it at gunpoint.
 
LOL spidey, funny stuff. Anyway, I've always tried to space out watching entire shows because it tends to tire me out after a few hours. However, there are exceptions to that rule, like season 3 of Narcos.
 
I like to do 2 episodes at a time for continuity. More if they're shorter. But I do find some things lose their "special-ness" after too many episodes. I put Futurama in that camp as an example. I love the hell out of that show, but after 3 episodes (about an hour) I'm ready for something else. I guess that's why I didn't like the "movies" when they came out, I preferred them broken up. I do get tired of Bender and Zoidberg's shit after 2 hours, but in shorter doses it's gold.

When wifey is involved, it's 2 or 3 on a weekend max. When we watched The Killing we did 2 or 3 at a time. With Westworld, she couldn't deal with more than one at a time, so we did one episode every night .

So I guess it depends on the show. I tend to prattle.
 
For me I wait and binge. If I watch things by the week I lose track of what the hell is going on.
 
bull-oney.

i binged watched 2 seasons of rick and morty and i love every one of them.
 
I have been binge watching Star Trek over the last year or so. I started with DS9, then Voyager and now I am about a third of the way through Season 6 of TNG (that's 483 ~45 minute episodes so far, plus some special features on TNG). Go big or go home :p.
 
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