My name is Nicole, and I am an addict. Like many other young adults out there, I have become addicted to binge watching Netflix. Yes, this is a real sickness!
If you have ever felt a sense of loss at the end of Friday Night Lights, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Gossip Girl, or One Tree Hill then you may also fall into this category. Worse yet, if you have mercilessly re-watched full seasons of the aforementioned shows because you have in fact watched ALL of them before, you are most likely an addict. If you find yourself asking questions like: “What would Blaire Waldorf do?”, “How would Coach Taylor react in this situation?”, or even “What inappropriate comment would Mark Sloan have to say if he were here?” then you, too, are an addict. If you clicked in to read this, I suspect that you fear you may share my addiction; do not fret, friends, because I am going to give you three facts that justify the sickness that is Netflix addiction.
1) People who grow attached to characters from their favorite shows are typically people with big hearts. There is a reason that you stay up three extra hours to find out if Mark and Lexi end up together, and that reason is because you care; you sympathize with the stress that these people feel as they work through their problems. Who would ever say that caring for others is a problem? No one. Congratulations! You are a good, caring person.
2) Binge watching Netflix leaves little time for the more mainstream activities of young adults, such as going out and getting into trouble. It is likely that you have lied about having too much homework to go out when in reality you just cannot stand to break away from Serena Vanderwoodsen’s downward spiral, and that is just fine! If you remain safely in bed with a remote in hand, how much trouble can you cause?
3) Finally, these shows teach important life lessons. By the end of One Tree Hill, you learned how important it is to be your own person, love the people worth loving, and fight for what you want. By the end of Grey’s Anatomy, you realized that your actions do not always define you, change is unavoidable, and love is necessary. By the end of Lost, okay I admit that at the end of Lost you will be just as confused as when you started, but it was an enjoyable month of confusion, right? And by the end of Friday Night Lights, you knew that you should always work hard, believe in yourself, and do the right thing.
Welcome to NAA, Netflix Addicts Anonymous. This is not a bad place to be, as the above facts prove, and I know you will be happy here. You are with your people, and we are all in this together! “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...” and we all know this particular addiction is here to stay
