Anna Maria Richards
With streaming services on the rise and internet service providers like Local Cable Deals offering mind blowing spectrum deals for their customers that binge-watching has become unavoidable for the masses. Binge-watching has a bad rep because of the health hazards like obesity, heart disease and depression associated with it. Excess of everything is bad of course, and I agree with the experts that binge-watching has definitely become a problem now. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. There are ways to stay healthy and still have your binge fix.
The first and basic thing to understand about any problem is that everyone is different and thus reacts to things differently. Likewise, with binge-watching, there is not a certain amount of hours after which it becomes a health issue. What you have to pay attention to is your behavior. Do you choose watching TV over going out with family/friends? Even worse, do you think it’s perfectly fine to ignore family or friends that may be sitting next to you because you’re watching a show that you like? If these are the sort of things you’re doing regularly then you’ve got a problem, my friend, and you definitely need a solution.
So how can you binge-watch better?
You may be someone who occasionally binges and doesn’t think of it as a problem or someone who has gone to the extreme of taking it up as a sport and is left incapable of turning off the screen. Regardless of the category, you fall in, the below-mentioned guidelines will help you have a healthy relationship with your TV.
1. Shut-Off Time
According to experts, it is essential for us to turn off all screens emitting blue light an hour before we sleep in order for us to sleep better. In that light, it is crucial that you set a time when you’ll just get up and leave or a number of episodes you’ll watch before you’re done for the day. Gone are the days when we could only watch one episode at a time of our favorite shows. It’s so easy to get sucked into the black hole of auto-play nowadays that a shut-off time has to become second nature to us.
2. Closely Observe Your Behavior
As I said earlier, there is no specific amount of hours recommended for TV every day. However, humans are intelligent beings and sometimes we may choose to ignore the red flags but we always know exactly how things are. Embrace the evolution of your brain and eliminate the red flags as soon as they appear.
Pay attention to the tell-tale signs, like someone telling you that you watch too much TV or you canceling a meet-up with friends to watch another episode, or you simply ignoring the people in the house.
3. Don’t Feel Guilty
It’s an uphill battle we fight against the streaming services who invest enormous amounts of money to get us to binge-watch. So don’t beat yourself up if you binge sometimes. We all do! As long as it’s not interfering in your normal life activities it’s okay to watch a few episodes in a row every now and then.
Final Word
We all can agree that at some point we’ve all binged some show and thoroughly enjoyed it. Even psychologists agree that if kept under control binge-watching has positive effects too. When binge-watching you feel more connected to the characters and immersed in the story-line than when you watch single episodes at intervals. Hence, the feeling of connection uplifts our mood. As they say, everything is good for you in moderation.
