Binge watching makes us like shows less, forget them faster, study says

After decades of weekly installments of television shows, the last few years have seen a titanic shift in the way we ingest television. While episodic stuff is still chugging along on network and cable televison, the act of “binge watching” has become the preferred way to watch shows for many. If you don’t suffer from Fear Of Missing Out or, worse yet, being spoiled, you might be the type to spend a Saturday with your best friends – Blanket, Remote, and Tea Kettle – watching 13 hours of television in one go, breaking only for bathroom, food, and maybe a nap? Watching all that stuff is tough. But that habit is hurting the “takeaway” we get from television shows, one study says.

I’ve argued against binge watching before, and been read the riot act by friends as a result, but now I’m back with some science.

According to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal First Monday, binge watching changes not just how well we remember shows, but how we feel about the same content. The study found that those who watch shows all at once experienced much faster memory decay compared to those who watch the same programs on a daily or weekly basis.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/09/17/binge-watching-forget-shows-like-less/