Binge-worthy

With the age of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video - we have endless ways of being entertained. Netflix even has a TV show category called, "Binge worthy" shows. They are usually quite addicting and before we know it, we've spent the whole night in front of the TV or whichever device you happen to be using.

Besides entertainment, what are we getting out of this? Perhaps if it happens to be something educational, we might be learning something - but how often do you binge-watch something like this? I admit I binge-watched The Cosmos, which was narrated by the ever-famous astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I enjoyed it and I learned a lot, but unfortunately I don't remember much from it.

Imagine the days when we had only books. Unless you were an editor, librarian, or book lover, you probably wouldn't have binge-read. But if we did, I think we'd be better off because reading takes your time and focus. By the time you are done reading the book you'd probably have a lot more to say about it than if you had just finished a TV series.

I don't very much enjoy my conversations with people when we talk about our latest binge-watching adventure. Why? Because it's usually short-lived and shallow. Here's how it usually goes: "Hey, did you see that last season of Game of Thrones?" "Yeah, it was insane! I can't believe this person died" "Did you see the last season of so and so?" "Yeah, I can't believe so and so happened". Just like that, we switched the conversation to a different, completely unrelated show. I can't stand it. I also find this very disturbing.

It's not just binge-watching TV shows that shares this shallow consumption of the media today... it's headline news, Tweets, etc.

This is why we had to write book reports in grammar school... to remember and learn from what we read!