I’m not
really a big fan of watching shows on TV. Waiting a week in between each
episode? I’ll forget why I was excited about the show in the first place. I,
like so many young adults today, am a bigger fan of what has come to be called “binge
viewing.” According to an article by Emma Montgomery on broadcastingcable.com,
binge viewing is “perfectly suited to the on-demand, in the moment,
entertainment-seeking lifestyle that millennials lead.” And it’s true. When I
finish an episode of a show like Breaking Bad, I didn’t want to have to wait a
week to see what happens. In fact, next week at that time, I might not have
even had time. That’s why I waited until the show ended and watched it all at
once.
It seems
that us millennials prefer this method of show viewing. According to a survey
done by The Trending Machine, when asked how they would prefer to watch a
13-episode season of a show, 43% of responders ages 18-24 said they would want
to watch it all in one day. 30% said they’d prefer to watch it over a few days.
Only 10% of responders that age said they’d prefer to watch it over 13-weeks,
the regular time frame for a 13-episode season. But responders who were 45-54
years old were the opposite. Only 24% would prefer to watch all in one day, and
the majority, 33%, wanted to watch it over the 13-weeks.
So why is
it that millennials just can’t wait? Though I can’t speak for the rest of the
world, I can say why I can’t: because I don’t have to. Cable companies and
television producers are so interested in millennial habits and so quick to cater
to the millennial consumer that they make nearly every show on television
readily available online. In 2012, television was rated the top content preferred
by millennials, over music and movies. So I don’t want to watch movie after
movie on my Saturday off, nor do I want to watch just one episode of a show
that I missed. I want to watch the whole show. Call me a greedy millennial, but
I’ll never give up my day-long Netflix dates. Never.
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