What is the appeal of a TV
marathon? We’ve all done it. We’ve all been sucked into four, five, ten hours
of back-to-back episodes of our favorite TV shows. Cable channels and DVD
collections facilitate this phenomenon. They have created a new addiction. It’s
incredible how you tell yourself you’re only going to watch one episode, and
six episodes later you realize you’ve done nothing with your day. Daylight has
escaped you.
Since the invention of the
television, there have been complaints about its addictive quality, and the
negative cognitive and health effects. TV time inevitably distracts children
from their studies and adults from picking up a good book. Independent and
imaginative thinking are replaced by the efforts of others. In addition, time
spent in front of the TV is time not spent being active, and is often
associated with bad eating habits—whether a result of brainwashing from
commercials promoting the latest sugary cereal or the unconscious overeating
that arises from not being focused on the food in front of us or our body’s
satiation point.
But the last decade has brought a
new facet to this addictive quality. Marathons have affected our ability to
practice moderation. We are a society that wants to know what happens next. We
are a society that wants more of whatever we enjoy. And more importantly, we
want familiarity and comfort.
TV marathons are like comfort food.
When we feel lazy and upset marathons are exactly what our bodies crave. They
offer an escape, distraction, even if it is not the best choice in terms of
productivity and health.
For each person, this addiction
manifests in a unique way. Each individual has a genre or specific TV show that
they like. While one person can get sucked into an all-day marathon of Jersey Shore, another person cannot turn
away from back-to-back episodes of Law
and Order: SVU. And while this phenomenon has existed since live television
brought us Sunday football, there is a bit of a different quality to the
all-day marathon of NCIS and Cupcake Wars. We are not watching history-in-the-making.
Marathons are more passive. They require less thought and less attention. They
allow us to turn off our brains.
And maybe that is the real reason
we crave marathons. This time that we live in bombards us with information and
our lives demand so much of us. We constantly have to be “on,” running around,
dealing with life. Marathons allow us to shut down and, in a way, to take a
moment for ourselves. Yes, we could escape our lives with a good book. But,
let’s be honest, that often feels like it takes too much effort. The beauty of
a TV marathon is that there is no effort involved. We don’t even have to change
the channel, much less turn a page. Much like during times of sleep, our bodies
shut down and allow us to remain curled up on the sofa or in bed for hours at a
time. Only the need for bathroom break or food can draw us away. But those
distractions are only temporary. The stronger pull is from the next episode
awaiting us. Unlike most good things, this one only ends when we want it to—or until
we’ve seen every episode of the five season DVD collection or the channel we
are watching decides that it is time to change up the day’s programming.
So, while TV marathons can have a
negative connotation, the fact is they let us take a break from our lives. And
we need that. We need hours, not minutes to zone out, to check out. We need
that time to see how the other half lives, so that we can return to our lives
in time.
Another interesting aspect in this argument is the combination of viewers' annoyance with commercials and the ease to watch TV delayed or on the internet. I personally can not stand commercials (unless it is the Super Bowl) and most everyone I know feels the same way. For this reason, I hate watching TV marathons unless it is on a premium channel like HBO. People are more inclined to watch a "marathon" if they have recorded all of the episodes in order to fast forward through all the commercials. Thus a thirty minute show is cut down in to twenty one to twenty three minutes. The internet also cuts down on the success of live TV marathons because almost everyone on the internet can find ways, legal or not, to watch tv episodes without commercials. While I agree that TV commercials allow for a break from normal lives, people take advantage of new technology to make this break as quick as possible.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think TV itself is the devil. Not only talking about marathon and commercials, even the normal TV shows on air create addiction. While you are waiting for the next week's new episode, all you can think this week is what is going to happen next in whatever TV show it is. I agree with that watching TV can be a great way to zone out from our busy life, but sometime, I think it is doing a too good of job that it is dragging people away from life. And next think you know is piles of work that need to be done days ago. Moreover, as the recording feature on TV getting better and better, it is not even possible to stay away from TV because you are not home. What can we do to stop this madness? I think I am the no.1 person who need help on this...
ReplyDeleteNot having the time to watch TV on a regular basis I definitely have been suckered into a marathon...or two... and I completely agree with you that it allows people an escape from their lives. Which in moderation I do not think is a problem. When people begin doing this weekly or multiple times a week I think it begins to cause problems. A lot of people use television and movies as an escape, rather than just a break from their lives, they are looking to forget or run away from things, in this context I think that TV can have some negative affects. I find this especially true for young children, all of my younger cousins spend hours and hours in front of the television watching TV or playing video games, which I don't quite understand because that wasn't really the case when I was growing up. And in return they lack many of the social skills and life skills you learn from going outside and interacting with others. In moderation I don't see any problems with watching TV, but when it consumes most of someone's time, there are many problems to that.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty incredible to think that while we have learned so much about human behavior and psychology, a lot of it is being used to market products to us. I'm willing to bet that there were psychological studies done that show people are more prone to marathons of shows as opposed to just one. It's all a part of TV stations like ABC and NBC jockeying for more valuable commercial time to advertise to us. Of course we've gained so much with the invention of the television (storytelling, visual arts, etc). But do the gains outweigh the costs? I'd say no, because we've taken performance art to a level where it isn't really considered art anymore. Most people just take it as a given that there are going to be good TV shows or movies.
ReplyDeleteThere was an interesting essay on this actually. News channels are particularly easy to blame for this addictive nature. We get news in single five minute fast paced reels. From a story about cute kittens to killings in Gaza with little transition. It's like the on goings of the world flashing before your eyes so quickly you can't get up from your seat. It's smart and damaging. It's smart on the end of TV companies, because it keeps you glued to the next thing, and forced you to wait through commercials. It's damaging to us, and to society as a whole, because it prevents any real sense of "catharsis". We see genocide on TV, and we feel bad, like "damn, someone should do something", but WE never do. We see it, but before we can rise from our seats, the next clip is one, and then the next, and then the next. It's a psychological tactic to feed our shuffling attention spans with a barrage of images until we're too scared to leave our seat in fear of missing the next bit of information.
ReplyDeleteI agree that TV seems easier and potentially more relaxing and effortless than reading a book, but in reality, I don't think it is. As you have mentioned, there are countless distractions, such as commercials, food, FaceBook, etc. While reading a book, it is nearly impossible to do anything else at the same time. You are able to focus more, and when you are done, you wonder, what just happened for the past couple hours? You don't regret sprawling on the couch and eating a whole bunch of junk food, but you actually feel like you left the world for a little while and are ready to come back and focus. Instead of putting you in a sloth-like state, you can actually come out recharged. The only difficult part is going out and getting the book.
ReplyDeleteI think that television marathons are definently a great way to relax but also highly addictive. Theres something about a consistent stream of the same show that makes it seem like one long movie and makes you have to keep watching to see the ending. I agree with Caroline Cooke that reading is definently a better use of your time-- or going to the gym, doing homework, spending time with friends... the list goes on. A lot of times we watch the marathon and feel like we have wasted the entire day, even with an education book I can still feel this way. Instead we should try to be productive and attempt to make the best of our time
ReplyDeleteHaving recently fallen victim to this issue, I am glad that you state the benefit of this questionable practice. Netflix, I believe, enhances this phenomenon by allowing us to watch multiple seasons of a TV show without any effort beyond a click every three episodes or so of activity. Sometimes, though, it is not entirely passive. Sometimes it is like cycling down: you use your critical and/or creative processes on the events in front of you, but do not feel the burden or stress of those same processes being applied in the real world. Personally, I use it as an aid in between marathon sessions of schoolwork. It is sometimes more beneficial than socializing because it keeps me focused inward, which helps to generate momentum when I need to begin working again.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to Caroline's comment, I do think that sitting with an accessible book or a movie serves a similar purpose. I only think that the marathon element in television helps you escape into a different world, in which there is no ending until you dictate it. That, of course, is precisely what is so dangerous about it.