Binge watching television shows has been a recent trend due to the very popular streaming websites such as Netflix and Hulu. A Netflix survey has defined binge watching as watching between two to six episodes in one sitting. This has put cable companies in competition with not only each other, but also with other streaming databases.

Teenagers and adults often binge watch to get a break from their daily lives. Life can be very stressful between work, school and extracurricular activities and it’s always helpful to get your mind off of things by watching television.

“I like to binge watch rather than watch television on air because I like to save the episodes,”MSD English teacher, Sarah Lerner said. “I don’t want to watch a show tonight, and then not see the next show for a week. I feel like there’s something missing in my life.” said Sarah Lerner, an English teacher at MSD.”

According to statista.com, Binge watching is believed to have originated in the 1980’s, when some TV stations started featuring returns of certain series’ episodes in marathon sessions. When DVD’s became available for home viewing, their high- storage capacity allowed for entire seasons to be watched by viewers, making it easy to say to oneself “just one more”.

“I like to watch shows when they are aired because I don’t have time to binge watch. I am involved in the band and I just don’t have the time for it.” sophomore Sydney Shteif said.

Binge watching usually works best when people have extra time in their schedules. If someone has a very loaded schedule, they may not have the time to binge watch.

Regular television is still popular, however, binge watching is becoming more and more trendy, especially with shows like Breaking Bad, Parks and Recreation, Grey’s Anatomy and many others.  Both adults and teens enjoy watching their favorite TV show, sometimes to catch up on a recent episode or sometimes to watch a whole season of that show.