Gone are the days when you didn’t leave the house on a [insert weekday here] because the next episode of your favourite show was on.

Now, thanks to online streaming platforms, we binge watch everything, wherever we want, whenever we want.

Naturally, when technology is in the mix it has a way of producing new human phenomena like sleep texting. The same applies to binge-watching.

Before, if you were watching something episodically over a couple of weeks and the first two episodes were awful, you wouldn’t set aside your Monday night to watch a third.

Now, with the advent of bingeing, even though the series is terrible, we find ourselves sticking it out to the bitter end. Here’s Mashable:

Something you hate can suck you in just as much as a show that makes your heart sing — love and hate are both strong emotions, after all. The cardinal TV show sin if you’re looking to attract binge-watchers is to be boring, says Paul Levinson, a communications professor at Fordham University and author of New New Media.

“Once our emotions are unleashed, whether it’s because we’re very attracted to something or very repelled by something, if we feel strongly enough about it, we want to know more,” Levinson says.

He gives the example of President Trump to further his point: Even if you hate him, you can’t seem to look away.

It’s hard to look away when he’s holding a TV remote like a pistol.

The trainwreck of an American president aside, there’s more to hate-bingeing than just strong emotions.

When given the option of washing the dishes or continuing to watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians, as much as you hate the latter, you hate the former more.

“When there are no good options about what to do, people tend to sort of default to the least objectionable decision,” Atkin says. “Binge-watching a show you hate may not be particularly pleasant, but it’s more pleasant than cleaning the bathroom or taking your dog for a walk when it’s raining.”

And there it is – the whole point of bingeing series is to shut out the outside world for a bit. If you have to hate-binge to do that, then so be it.

That said, if you’re going to binge watch, at least try to find something decent, like the highly anticipated The Girl From St Agnes.

[source:mashable]