Binging or Bingeing, if you would rather, is the act of taking part in an activity without apparent limits.

 

In the past, binging referred to excessive eating or drinking of alcoholic beverages but in more recent years has come to refer to television and movie watching on networks such as Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu or just the plain “on demand” feature on your preferred cable system. The new “binge” is actually incorporating all of the above.

 

Todays  style  is to “binge watch” programs. This is actually a more casual term, at least compared to the drinking and eating mentioned earlier. In the old days, 5 years ago :), you would watch a television program that would come on once a week, though some shows are still like that, we are talking here about “on demand” shows with a queue.  A queue is a list of digital files, in this case, TV episodes, many in multiple seasons, some as many as 29.

 

The popular CW show, “Supernatural” is in its thirteenth season and still going strong. This seems like a lot of TV watching but consider this, each season has upwards of twenty two episodes at 44 minutes without the ads, per season! That is 264 episodes on Netflix with another twenty two more episodes ready to be uploaded to the queue later on this year, for a total of 286 episodes...thats a lot of “binge-watching”!

 

Supernatual isn’t even at the top of the list. According to Wikipedia, The Simpsons wins the whole contest with a whopping 29 seasons! Thats 618 episodes at 22 minutes each and a total viewing time of of approximately 227 hours, thats without the commercials. South Park comes in second followed by Law & Order. See the whole list here at Wikipedia. Based on a study by Netflix itself that compares different groups of shows, says that the average is about two hours a day to watch an entire season in about five days.

 

​

 

Binging has become a popular term, mostly one of light-hearted fun and relaxation, but there are a few dangers to consider and not only with the liquor consumption. The drinks along with all the junk food calories while staying in your seat without moving or at least standing up for extended periods can lead to problems with your health.

A new study done by the ACSM, says out of 8900 adults studied, the risk of death is increased for every hour of television watched and 4+ hours of TV a day increases the risk of inflammatory-related deaths.

 

So, go ahead and enjoy your shows! Maybe walk in place or use a treadmill while watching. Maybe it's as simple as just getting up and standing every 20 minutes or so and eating vegetables or chewing on ice, whatever it takes. Better yet, if you just want to find out what happens, save some time and go to Wikipedia.com, look up your show and read the concise overview of what happens.

Binge Out All of the Time!

At least be comfortable! This shirt is now available on Teespring!