Netflix & College Students: A Binge Affair

Theodore G. Petersen of the Florida Institute of Technology did a qualitative analysis of college students’ binge watching habits.

First to understand why this study is applicable Petersen explains how millennials have fallen into the category of “cord-nevers”, meaning they have never had a traditional cable subscription and instead have simply paid for streaming serves. These “cord-nevers” have also helped to coin the term “binge-watching”. Meaning viewers don’t have to experience the weekly anticipation for their favorite sit com to air, but simply binge on a series.

“ This paper attempts to examine exactly how and why college students bingewatch and what effect that might have on their personal, social, and academic lives. We found that while students easily recognize the benefits they get from binge-watching, they fail to see the ways their habit might hurt them.”

-Petersen

Literature Review

Research in relation to millennials and Netflix is minimal. Most research has been done with audiences and traditional television. However, Damratoski, Field, Mizell & Budden (2011) realized that college students were left out of studies so they decided to conduct a study with college age individuals. There study showed in 2010 that college students were consuming most of their televised media not through a tv but via the internet or on digital recording devices.

Jenner (2014) argued that Netflix, by creating original programming and offering all episodes of a serialized drama immediately, is ushering a new era of television production and consumption.

Research Question

How does binge-watching affect the social and academic lives of college students?

Method

Interviewing 13 students at a “science-oreineted university in the southeastern United States”, the researchers were able to carry out a scientific study to see the lived experiences of college-age binge-watchers. Participants ranges from 18 to 25, four men and nine women. Following an interview guide, with room for follow up questions, interviews ranged from a half hour to over an hour.

This paper originated from a research methods class. Each researcher conducted two or three interviews, and four other graduate students in the course conducted the remaining interviews. This research falls in the category of phenomenology (Creswell, 2013), where our goal is to understand the essence of the lived experience and capture the range of experiences.

The first six interviews were a part of a research course, all students turned in audio files from their interview with a completes transcript, codebook, and “thematic analysis” of their interviews. The codebooks contained a label for each code as well as a definition and example from the conducted interviews. Over the next semester three students from the class along with the course instructor continued the study by interviewing one or two more participants.

Staying consistent, each interview as transcribed and coded. The research team came together to create a master codeboook and thematic analysis. The thematic analysis is a result from the codebook created from all 13 interviews and collaborations between all contributing authors.

Findings

Each individual interviewed had a different relationship to binge-watching. Some calling it a “mindless escape” while others defined it as “watching something continuously without doing anything else for several hours”. One interviewer said “(binge-watching) It transports me into another person’s life for a little while.” The researchers qualified it as the amount of time spent watching or number of episodes watched, meaning someone who watched an episode or two a night finishing a series in a week in not considered a binge-watcher.

And by binge watching. I ’ll watch probably like half a season or a season a night, depending on the show, if it’s 30 minutes or an hour. And so / get through a lot o f TV, and I feel like right now I ’ve totally exhausted Netflix

Interviewers had different opinions on movies over TV shows. Watching two movies a night is not the same as watching ten episodes of TV in the same night. The scary trance of binge-watching is apparent in the interviewers.

Well, I define binge-watching as like when you are doing bingewatching, you basically have no idea what’s going on outside you, you ‘re basically absorbed into the show and you don’t care about what’s happening around you. The only triggers, you’d say, when you got to get up to pee or something. Only those will stop you from watching, or the season ends.

But another interviewer had a different opinion. Binge-watching isn’t mindless but intentional:

I think binge-watching is consistency watching their a movie series or TV series with the intent to like just veg and watch as much of it as you can within a time period without any regard to activities you’re supposed to be doing.

Binge Watching as a Social Activity

Binge-watching seems like a lonely activity, done in your dorm room or apartment alone. Done on your laptop or phone with headphones, it doesn’t allow for much interaction beyond you and your screen. The convince of streaming media has made individuals even more introverted.

But this is so easy and I can stay in my pajamas and just watch and pretend that I ’m a character in this TV show that I ’m watching and enjoying life and live vicariously through this TV show.

But just because this activity is often done in solidarity doesn’t mean that it can’t be a social event. Roommates, friends, get together to binge-watch together. Some participants explained how they watched together without viewing from the same scree.

We actually started watching the series together and when college got over, we got our hands on the series, and at that time, we both had a lot o f time, and both each compete to see who could finish most.

The idea of streaming media even helps to bridge physical distances, so although they may be consuming the media on their own, they are still engaging in a social sense.

My little sister is going to college in a different state, but we are very close and watching TV actually helps us stay in touch. Every week on Sunday evening we both get on Netflix and watch a TV show and then at the same time we either Skype or talk on the phone while watching, and it kind o f feels like we are sitting next to each other on the couch.

In addition to watching along, competing, or watching alone, binge-watchers are able to relate in other settings through binge-watching. In office settings, in the classroom, or just among friends, binge-watching give viewers a connection to other viewers.

And people are like what did you think o f that episode o f whatever, and we can all kind of relate to what we saw and our emotional experience. Like when you saw Aaron get eaten by that Titan, like “noooooo! ” But then like he came back out and was like “He’s okay. ”

Impact on School or Work

I have a schedule. I plan. I definitely / have like a Google calendar that has all my classes and my work times in it, and when I take lunch. Everything’s down to a science as far as that goes.

College students are more jampacked then ever. School, work, extra circulars, social lives, homework. It’s a lot to balance, some resort to sticky notes while others turn to google calendars to keep everything straight. Many students who were interviewed confessed they penciled in binge-watching just like any other assignment they would have. They have to plan it in, often using it as a reward for finishing assignments or tasks. But not everyone follows such a structured binge schedule, admitting they would get sucked back in or “slip up”.

Once interviewers were watching, the Netflix autoplay feature was just an encouraging factor.

You’ll start watching a series late at night, and you’ll be like, I ’ll just one episode or two episodes, and then before you know it because Netflix doesn’t really stop for a while before it asks you if want to continue, it’ll just keep playing episodes over and over again.

Connecting to Characters or TV Shows

Interviewers reported bringing their favorite shows to their own real life. Some said they make fashion choices now based off their favorite characters, or even attracted to characters. Other participants in the interviews said they noticed themselves saying things or doing things a favorite character would.

Binge watching TV you become, like I said, emotionally invested in these characters, and you kind o f get to know this character’s personality.

Why Do You Binge Watch?

When asked this simple question many responded with a simple “I don’t know” or they didn’t have a specific reason. One participant claimed from binge watching he gained a matured sense of analysis and a greater appreciation for storytelling.

And then I started getting appreciating and started thinking about like ok.. ..how did he think about that? The his theory.. .like you kind of start looking beyond the movie itself. So, now I’m kind of looking for that. That’s why I watch now. Because I look for that.. ..how is he going to trick us this time. ’Cause everyone obviously thinks they know what’s going to happen, how it’s going to end. Then you just get shocked and every time that happens you just think oh.. ..that’s pretty cool.

Conclusion: The Netflix is the Message

Marshall McLuhan’s “the Medium is the Message” points out that the content is not important, he argues that what is really important is how the medium is changing the scale and speed of our experiences. This is the case with college students and Netflix, Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Friends, it doesn’t matter. College golden days are now running into a blur by the endless binge that Netflix provides.

As busy college students, binge-watching is carved into their day like a class or homework, sometimes even replacing these activities. Although grades may suffer, social lives may dry up, there were some positive aspects found in binge-watching. It acts as a reward for hard work and relax. All participants saw the positives to binge-watching but never clearly the negative side.

Limitations

Although a small number interviewed, because eight different interviewers conducted 13 mixed interviews there may have been focuses or perspectives present in some interviews and not others. While the interview guide was used for all interviews, personal bias and circumstances may have unknowingly influenced the research.

Now, I must go watch Netfilx after reading about it so much…..