Episode 2: Binge Watching Habits
As part of the same survey of college students, I asked about their binge watching habits. Out of the 60 college students (ages 18-25) only 3 responded saying that they had never binge watched before. This means that 95% of people surveyed have binge watched at least once in their life before, proving just how widespread binge watching is.
While only one person said that they binge watch every day, just over 48% of respondents admitted to binge watching at least once a month if not more. Not only is binge watching widespread, but almost half of the college students surveyed are participating in this culture as frequently as once a month or more. In light of the fact that college students have countless hours of class, studying, potentially work, clubs, and social engagements every month, finding the time to binge watch that often means it must be an important part of life to them. Personally, it is something that I often do to unwind or distract myself from class, although often something that I get too into and something that ultimately distracts me from work I should be doing. As previously discussed, this is a common sentiment among students, their binge watching something they are ashamed of because it keeps them from other work. This shame, however, does not stop them from binge watching.
Netflix is overwhelmingly the most popular binge watching site, with 91.5% of survey respondents saying they use Netflix as a source of binge watching. Since this is the most popular, it will most likely be the most referenced source in this project. It is also the site that I have the most personal experience with, so it is the most comfortable for me to talk about. Beyond Netflix, 20.3% said they binge watch through their cable provider's On Demand service, and 18.6% use Amazon Video. 11.9% binge watch on YouTube (the only answer given in the "other" category), 8.5% use Television Network sites, and just 6.8% said they use Hulu. All of these numbers are significantly less than Netflix, which makes me feel secure in my decision to focus on it as the main source of binge watching.
86.4% of respondents said that they typically binge watching by themselves as opposed to with friends, while 5.1% said they typically binge watch with friends and the other 8.5% selected other, about half of which said both and half of which said usually alone but sometimes with friends or significant other. While I expected the majority of people to say they binge watch alone, I was honestly surprised that it was not a more popular answer. Once I added the people from other who said usually alone but sometimes with friends, however, and re-calculated it, I found that the number went up to about 90%. While this isn't a huge jump, it looks closer to the number that I expected.
I also asked what other activities people do while they binge watch. 70.7% of the people who responded said that they text and 65.5% said that they use social media. 25.9% said that they will talk to others while binge watching. 20.7% said that they play games while binge watching and the same amount said that they do homework. 8.6% used the "other" answer, saying that they also do things such as chores, eat, and work out. Only 15.5% of the respondents replied that they only focus on the show, not doing anything else while they binge watch.