Binge-Watching: A Suspenseful, Emotional, Habit

Personality Traits and Motivation as Factors Associated with Symptoms of Problematic Binge-Watching

“…Escape motivation was the strongest factor for most of the symptoms of excessive binge-watching. Many studies on behavioral addiction showed that the Internet, video games, social media and shopping can be a way to avoid daily life problems [4,7,10,[58][59][60][61]. The results of the research show that excessive binge-watchers have a tendency to use these behaviors as a strategy to regulate their emotions [7].…”

“…On the other hand, Entertainment motivation was related to Emotional reactions, Lies and Preoccupation. Binge-watching is a highly entertaining behavior, which provides positive emotions and fun [3][4][5][6][7]10,27,29,30,33]. It is also emotionally and cognitively engaging.…”

“…The development of multiple streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Disney + and HBO GO over the recent years has had a big effect on creating the phenomenon of binge-watching [1]. The most common definition of binge-watching is watching multiple episodes of a TV series in one sitting [2][3][4] However, it is important to mention that scientists differ among each other about how this phenomenon should be defined in terms of the amount of episodes watched in one sitting, the duration of the episodes or content-episodes of one TV series or multiple series watched in one session [5][6][7][8][9][10]. Some scientists define binge-watching as watching 1-3 episodes in one sitting [5,11], or define it as watching three to four or more thirty-minute-long episodes of a TV series, or watching three or more one-hour-long episodes [4].…”

Binge-Watching Serial Video Content: Exploring the Subjective Phenomenology of the Binge-Watching Experience

“…Academic literature on the topic has grown as well. Yet, notably, most research on binge-watching has focused either on the determinants or on the consequences of this new mode of consumption (e.g., Granow et al, 2018;Rubenking & Bracken, 2018;Shim & Kim, 2018;Sung et al, 2018;Vaterlaus et al, 2019;Walton-Pattison et al, 2018). By contrast, the present study contributes to the literature by offering insights into the experience of binge-watching itself.…”

Self-control and need satisfaction in primetime: Television, social media, and friends can enhance regulatory resources via perceived autonomy and competence.

“…Additionally, even if individuals initially find their media use intrinsically satisfying, there can be too much of a good thing (Galak & Redden, 2018). Currently, binge-watching behavior is becoming more and more prevalent (Rubenking & Bracken, 2018), with people feeling "addicted" to TV, and stressing the lack of perceived autonomy over, for example, their own Netflix queue (Flayelle, Maurage, Vögele, Karila, & Billieux, 2019). We may posit that what starts as a functional, need-satisfying media behavior (e.g., for nondepleted users) may turn into a more compulsive or obligatory (and even extrinsically motivated) behavior that is unsatisfying and leads to greater depletion and less restoration of self-control.…”