This assignment was short and sweet, and only consisted of a couple of steps. We had to watch a Buzzfeed video about what it is like to binge watch a show, then watch professor Gernsbacher’s lecture video describing why we binge watch shows. Following this, we had to make a discussion board post, describing one of the reasons for binge watching mentioned in the lecture video, and describing if this reason has ever motivated me to binge watch.
The Buzzfeed video was short and more comical, rather than informative. On the other hand, Professor Gernsbacher’s lecture was more informative, describing 12 reasons that people binge watch shows. These 12 reasons are that it’s fun, it’s available, it allows developing deeper connections with the characters, it’s already paid for, it’s usually commercial free, it’s what many young people did as children, because it’s what everyone else is doing, it provides a community, it enables a shared culture, it’s becoming culturally acceptable, it keeps people from being left out, and to find out what happens next.
In my discussion board post, the motivation I talked about was to not be left out. Another way to describe this is FOMO or the “Fear of Missing Out”. Honestly, this goes way beyond TV shows and can apply to books, movies, and much more.
For example, if there is a TV show that becomes super popular, people begin to talk about it all the time, and sometimes it seems like everybody except you has watched it, and knows what happened. So, people often times make the choice to start binge-watching a TV show so they are not left out. They expect that once they finish the series, they can join in on the conversations about it, and feel as if they are more connected to the other people who have watched it.
I will admit it, the motivation to not be left out has motivated me before to binge-watch a TV show, and my example is with the comedic TV show called “The Office”. Going into my freshman year of college, I heard so many people talking about it and saw many memes about it, that I decided I wanted to watch it in order to not be left out. So, freshman year, in a span of a couple of weeks, I watched all 9 seasons of the show, which included 201 episodes! This motivation has impacted me and many others I know in my age group.
Reflecting on this assignment, I thought the topic choice was fantastic. Binge watching TV shows is not only prevalent in general right now, but it is so prominent among college students! Many people I know are always binge watching something, so it was a great topic to build an assignment around.
Additionally, it was great to start with that Buzzfeed video, because it was funny and eased the students into the assignments. It gave us an outside view of what it looks like when someone is absorbed so much with a show that they can’t really do anything else!
The lecture video was also very interesting. Many people today know about binge watching, but they don’t usually think about the reasons why people choose to do it. Listing the 12 different reasons was cool because even though most of them were simple, some are things I would not have thought of, and I can relate many of them to my own experiences.
This assignment was pretty simple and also entertaining, so I would say it was valuable. With some assignments being very long and containing many steps, it is key to have some assignments like this so the students remain engaged and interested. I hope that in future units there continue to be assignments like this, at least every once in awhile!
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