Food. Clothes. Alcohol Those are just some things that consumed in moderation are fine. But they also have the possibility of being indulged to the point of abuse, though some are more troubling than others. A glass or two of wine is fine, but if you're doing a bottle or more in a sitting by yourself you might have a problem. On the other hand, you may have a thing about buying shoes, but if you have the closet space and the financial wherewithal to pull an Imelda Marcos, it's only a problem if your spouse objects.
Our modern world has offered up even more opportunities to overdo it. Up until 50 years ago you couldn't abuse video games or social media because they didn't exist. Now both are part of the daily routine for large swaths of the population. And while most indulge their interest a little less at some times, a little more at others, there is a subset of the populace who are so locked into screens that they are unable to look up for fear they might miss something.
In and of themselves, these electronic items aren't inherently addictive in the way of nicotine or opioids. That said, there is research indicating that the dopamine burst you get from scrolling Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook can suck you in as much as a hit of cocaine. Still, the generally accepted belief is that with each of these hooks it is up to the individual to decide how much is too much.
And then we have television. Back in the day TV shows were doled out by the networks a week at a time. No matter how much you wanted to know what Fonzie would do next ("Happy Days"), or if JR was going to cheat again on Sue Ellen ("Dallas"), you could consume only so much. After your allotted and scheduled 30 or 60 minute dose, you were forced to go cold turkey until the next week. It didn't matter how much money you had or who you knew, nothing was going to tip you off as to what Crocket and Tubbs were going to wear next ("Miami Vice").
Then came 2013, and Netflix dropped an entire season of "House of Cards" in one go. While some traditionalists watched an episode and then changed the channel to "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," many stuck around and clicked right into episode 2. Still more welshed on their dinner plans and settled in for episode 3. And a number of true diehards put some cereal on the counter for the kids in the morning, moved back their early tee time, and stayed up all night (spoiler alert!) to see Frank Underwood accept the nomination for Vice President some 13 hours later. Or as producer Beau Willimon said, "Our goal was to shut down a portion of America for a whole day."
While it took two years for "binge-watch" to be named a word-of-the-year, it was a habit that quickly became ingrained in the populace as other streaming services followed suit. The so called "episode dump" became a normal way of releasing shows as practiced by Amazon, Hulu and others. And even if it wasn't a new show, the behavior took root in that people shotgunned one episode right into another and another of a program they latched onto, devouring 5 or 8 or 10 installments at a single sitting.
But then these same distributors realized that they were blowing their multi-million-dollar investments in a single puff of popcorn. More than one person took a trial subscription, binged on a season of "Orange is the New Black" or "Stranger Things," then cancelled. And so the hybrid release was born. They might post a few episodes of a show to reel you in, then go back to weekly releases to string you along. It's hard not to liken the practice to a heroin dealer giving out a free hit, then hooking their customer for life. Or till the season-ending cliffhanger, whichever comes first.
Yes, you know you are being played, but you can't avoid it. Still, compared to other binges and addictions, this one is relatively harmless. It only takes your time, and while that's not nothing, for most it is manageable. Now if you could only say the same about ordering from Amazon, you might get your life back.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford doesn't binge watch anything. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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