I've got a piece on binge-watching in the latest issue of Slate. In that piece, I mention that I've been doing interviews with people about their viewing habits. If you want to share your experiences binge-watching, I'd be happy to hear them.
The questions are below. You can cut and paste them into an email, with your answers, and send it to alex@distractionaddiction.com.
1. What kinds of shows do you binge watch? What does a show have to offer to be worth watching for hours at a time?
2. Thinking about your mental state of level of focus when you binge watch, is it a different kind of experience than watching regular live television, or YouTube videos, or things on the DVR?
3. Do you pay more or less attention during these multiple hours of watching?
4. Are there other activities– the theatre, the movies, concerts– where you're similarly engaged?
5. Are there things you consciously ignore or filter out while you're watching, either on screen or in your environment– e.g., fast-forward through commercials, turn off your phone, not check your email?
6. Are there things you do during a binge-watching session that you don't do when watching "normal" TV– e.g., look up the cast on IMDB to see what else they've been in, knitting, your taxes?
7. Where do you binge watch? In the living room, bedroom, on planes, elsewhere? And on what device(s)?
8. How does this differ from what we used to call “watching lots of television”? For you, is there a qualitative difference between binge watching and hours of channel-surfing, or watching whatever happens to be on?
9. Do you binge watch with other people, by yourself, or a mix?
10. If you could share a bit about your age and occupation, that would be great.