Everyone gather around and take a seat, this won't be long. Welcome to NAA (Netflix Addicts Anonymous) I am the coordinator for this week's meeting-- I'll start. Hello, I am Karissa and I am addicted to Netflix. My journey is a roller coaster of a tale and dates back to 2012, although I did dabble in Netflix prior to that I never got in too deep. It started out as just watching an occasional episode or two here and there, but soon I found myself consumed with binge watching seasons upon season, and series upon series. New to the world of instant streaming, I didn't know how much power it would soon have over me-- I didn't know its ability to completely alter my life.
My troubles didn't really begin until freshman year of college. The first show I every binge watched was Doctor Who-- following the Doctor and his companions around the galaxy, throughout space and time, became my obsession. I would cancel plans, and avoid my friends just to continue watching, I had to see what happened next. I recall a day when I watched the show for 24 hours straight. After doing so I walked out of my dorm with blood shot eyes, a mind filled with thoughts of space and an altered psyche. I looked up at the sky, questioned if Daleks were real, and hoped that the Campus Center wasn't filled with Cybermen. The ability for a show to make me question my own reality both frightened and excited me. I knew that Netflix was going to be a wonderful way to spend my time, and enable me to escape the evils I face in my own reality (okay, maybe not evils but you know the stress of going to class, being responsible, and what not).
This pattern of being completely mentally occupied by a show continued with Jericho, Terra Nova, the 4400, Continuum, Revolution, Orange is the New Black, One Tree Hill, Sense8, Life Unexpected, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Grace and Frankie, and many others of which I have since forgotten. I glide through tv shows, like they're a bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, devouring them and craving more. They fill the gap within my life like nothing else does, providing my mind with unlimited potential and opening the doors of my imagination. These shows offer me a place far more interesting than the world I've grown to know-- a way to be free from my-self and the restraints/limitations projected onto me by society.
This unhealthy, but increasingly satisfying relationship that I have with Netflix, is something I am sure a lot of other people have or do experience. I mean if we want to binge watch Dexter and scare ourselves into thinking that we are psychopaths, free of emotions or if we want to watch an entire season of Once Upon a Time in a weekend (no this didn't just happen with season four, I have four episodes left-- don't judge me), and believe that we are secretly princesses with hidden powers that will be triggered by a traumatic event, then so be it. We can stop anytime we want to, maybe. So in the mean time, releasing our minds of the clutter and mundane activities that fill our realities by enjoy an episode or 12 of a tv show is okay, right? I guess we will have to find out.
