My Story 2 is about Netflix culture, and how Netflix is starting to impact our lives more dramatically than it has before. I chose this, as I have noticed first-hand how binge watching Netflix can affect people, I have seen people miss days from work, and their excuse was they either got caught up in a show, or they were so tired as they stayed up all night finishing off a show, and this is what lead me to start researching Netflix and the culture behind it.
The audience I have aimed this story at is my own age group, as according to Netflix stats of 2015 the average age of a Netflix user at 51% of their users is between 16 and 24. So I have targeted my story to users within this age range, however it is not exclusively for these people, with easy to read stats, I believe this would interest anyone over the age of 24 as well.
I chose to produce this story in the form of a word document with supporting images, as I feel that when it comes down to facts and figures, and information relating to facts and figures, that the best way to explain in understandable detail is through this form. It is a short and snappy piece which I feel will engage the audience enough to finish and leave with a developed opinion of their own.
With this story my main difficulty was the research, and finding valid sources which I could then reference and backup with other sources so I knew I was getting my facts correct. It was more time consuming than difficult, and this is why I found this story to be the easiest of the three.
As for technical and ethical difficulties, I didn’t encounter any, it was a pretty straight forward document which just required me to put in the time and effort to research my facts.
Netflix Culture.
We can, but should we?
Netflix has become a part of our everyday lives. Over 86.7 million people around the world have a Netflix account and from the end of year report of 2015 we know that each subscription holder has, on average, 2.5 user accounts. So therefore, we can assume that on average there are approximately 216.75 million Netflix users equating to over 42.5 BILLION streaming hours in 2015 alone.
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/netflix_statistics-facts/ Accessed 13/12/16
TIME BUISNESS (2016) reported that Using these metrics, we can derive that each individual subscriber spent 568 hours watching Netflix in 2015 on average. That’s 1 hour, 33 minutes per day of streaming. That’s also up from 2014, when each subscriber averaged 505 hours on Netflix, or 1 hour, 23 minutes per day.
http://time.com/4186137/netflix-hours-per-day/ Accessed: 13/12/16
It’s hard not to watch.
With so much content we are spoilt for choice, we all indulge in a binge every now and then however sometimes we binge a little too much. Is it getting out of hand?
There is such an ease of access that we are literally able to watch an entire show from start to finish with 3 pushes of the remote or 4 clicks on a computer. Has it become too easy to binge? Per Netflix reports, 73% of all viewers’ binge, between 3 and 6 episodes consecutively, the shows they watch. That’s more than 158 million people binge watching shows in 2015 alone, this figure has risen even more dramatically through 2016. Could this begin to affect people in a negative way?
There are already reports to suggest that binge watching shows for more than 3 hours per day can double the chance of health problems, this is evident on Arts.Mic along with other supporting websites and articles.
https://mic.com/articles/98948/6-ways-binge-watching-is-ruining-our-brains-bodies-and-probably-our-souls#.bdmn4kPvO
Peer pressure indulgence.
A significant amount of people will watch a show religiously, they will look forward to every series and watch it as soon as it comes out. This often leads to small groups within every other group that watch it and talk about it the next day. However, what happens when people don’t catch up, everyone around them is pressuring them to keep up to date to watch the latest episode; this also takes effect on shows people have never watched. Their friends or colleagues go on about how amazing a show is which makes us feel left out, we feel we have missed out and therefore leads to us watching increasingly more shows and trying to keep up to date.
Although we are indulging ourselves, and often enjoy a binge, we are at times being peer pressured into watching it without even knowing it. This is where the issues come into play. There are so many shows to watch that it can be difficult to keep up to date on them all, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Stranger Things, House of Cards etc. and so people pressuring us to keeping up to date can lead to us spending more time watching shows than doing more important things that make more of a difference in our everyday lives. Which may lead to being late for work, school, university etc. or having days off, missing meetings, or events.
So, although Netflix is great and keeps us entertained we need to remember to limit ourselves and try not to get too carried away with the ‘Next Episode Starts in 10…9…8…’