2016-05-26

Wasting time on Netflix?

The ease of opening a new blog post and writing words appeals to me. It's easy to open that new tab and start typing away. It's slightly less easy to go fetch my journal and a pen and then start writing.
I blur the line between what should go in a personal journal and what should go in a personal blog. I blur it, but I don't erase it.

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Netflix. It's everywhere. And it's dangerous. Well okay, no, not dangerous... More like tempting, charming, captivating, engrossing. You get the picture. It's very tempting to watch multiple episodes of a TV show in a row. Especially when you have to exert a greater effort to STOP watching than to continue, thanks to the 15-second countdown timer that automatically starts the next episode for you.

Case in point: two days ago, I was on season 1 of a British sitcom called The IT Crowd, which is a show that kind of reminds me of The Office minus the mockumentary style and with fewer characters. Today, I'm in the middle of season 4. I'm not setting any records or anything (especially since each season only has six episodes), but it's still a little scary to see how much time I've spent glued to the screen in such short a time-span.

It's entertainment, and it's pretty good. Enough to make me laugh out loud at least once per episode, and that's a good thing. If I'm just laughing on the inside, I'm probably not producing endorphins and I want those. Diverting attention from a somewhat monotonous life is also a goal. So it's not like I'm completely wasting my time.

Other recent TV Netflix binges: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (7/10), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (5/10), and a documentary called Web Junkie (7.5/10).

If you're interested in how Netflix can be both good and bad for you, this article sums it up pretty well.

That's it for today!

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