Boredom struck senior Sarah Taylor as she sat in the backseat of the car on the seventeen hour drive to Crested Butte, Colorado. Rather than continue to wallow in a state of monotony, she proceeded to unlock her dad’s iPad, open Netflix, and watch hours upon hours of Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, and Breaking Bad. Even after reaching her destination, when she wasn’t skiing, Taylor lounged around and caught up on her favorite shows.
“I went skiing so the drive was really long, so I watched a lot during the drive there and back,” said Taylor. “Then, at night when I wasn’t skiing and we were just back at the house, I’d lay in bed and watch a couple of episodes of either Gossip Girl or One Tree Hill.”
Netflix is a provider of on-demand streaming of an immense, diverse collection of TV shows and movies. With membership, it may be accessed on any device with internet compatibility.
Upon conducting a survey, majority of students use Netflix. 61% of those who took it said that they used Netflix all of the time, and 35% said that they used it sometimes. Only a miniscule 3% said that they never use Netflix.
“I have nothing better to do,” said sophomore Zane King, a regular user of Netflix.
Netflix provides hours of entertainment for those who enjoy movies and TV shows, and becomes especially attractive to people that have a lot of down time. In a student’s case, this means Christmas break.
Because of the empty time that needs to be filled during the break, many turn to the television to interest them, specifically Netflix. This results in an activity known as “binge watching”, in which one sits and watches episode after episode or movie after movie for an extended period of time. 68% of students said that they binge watch often, 19% said that they only binge watch sometimes, and 13% said that they do not binge watch. From these results, it can be concluded that majority of those who watch Netflix also binge watch.
“Yes, I watch lots of shows in a row. I started watching Grey’s Anatomy. It’s actually pretty good,” said King.
Even if you aren’t binge watching, Netflix is still a large part of students’ regular routines.
“I watch at least one episode of Gossip Girl per day; I would watch on my iPad in bed before I went to sleep,” said junior Olivia Allen.
According to the survey, those who use Netflix primarily watch TV shows, and movies are less popular. 48% of those that took the survey said that they watched TV shows over movies most of the time, with only 6% saying that they prefered movies. This is because students are more attracted to the popular shows, whereas the movie selection is lackluster.
“Most of the movies are garbage,” said King. “They need to add a lot more to it.”
Whether you’re only watching one movie or episode, or watching several in a row, Netflix has gotten very good reviews across the board.
“I love it. It’s so addicting,” said Allen.