If you were to ask any of my friends or family about my relationship with films, they would all tell you the same thing: I am a complete movie junkie. It runs in my family; my mother worked in a movie theater, my brother worked in a movie theater, and I worked in a movie theater. The best part about that was watching the latest releases for free. That reminds me so much of how Netflix works in our media culture.

My brother, the same one who worked in the theater, once boasted of watching The Office five times through as well as Parks & Recreation. (I have never seen a single episode of either in their entirety.) He owes this accomplishment to Netflix. For $10 a month, you can access a vast array of films and TV shows that you can watch whenever you so choose. You can easily satiate any film or show craving you have, but there is still a problem: binging.

Simon Sinek easily noticed this kind of behavior transpiring with the advent of streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Video, and Hulu. He remarked that millennials’ media consumption no longer revolves around tuning in next week; instead, they can easily binge their favorite shows. If there’s one thing I remember from any of my health classes, it’s that binge watching of any kind is unhealthy. In this case, it can hamper your productivity and physical activity. The time I might spend watching The Office, Rick & Morty, or Parks & Recreation could be better spent reading a book for one of my classes or going to the gym...or writing this article. I might get entertainment from one, but I can get applicable knowledge from the other. Besides, that entertainment could last shorter than the time I spend searching for it.

For a time, my father had a Netflix account. Sometimes when I used it, I found myself taking more time figuring out what I wanted to watch than actually watching my chosen film or show. You tell me if that sounds like a waste of time. Saying no to Netflix meant removing the unhealthy temptations of sitting down and watching the same show potentially for hours on end, or worse, aimlessly wandering through a library of movies and TV shows without deciding what to watch. That is not to say watching TV or movies is a waste of time (remember that I’m a movie junkie), but streaming shows and films nonstop have noticeable detriments.

Telling someone that you don’t have Netflix nowadays is just as shocking as telling someone that you don’t have cable. I often shock people when I tell them that I don’t have a Netflix account, but saying no to Netflix has done nothing but good. I might not keep up with Stranger Things or BoJack Horseman, but I can still tell good entertainment from bad. Plus, I like collecting entertaining things. That’s why I stick to DVDs. Sure, it’s old technology, but whenever I’m called a movie junkie, I’ll at least have something to show for it!