Why Do People Like Watching a Series Again if They Know What s Going to Happen
"Forget the side by side big thing. We're all suckers for the last big affair." - Derek Thompson, The Atlantic.
I have a listing of Television shows that I've been meaning to picket, or rather that I intend to scout one day. Whenever they come up in a conversation, be it The West Wing or Buffy, I'll mention that I'm planning to watch that. Simply when it comes to sitting down and watching a bear witness or reaching the finale and determining what'south adjacent, I won't go for ane of these series on my bucket list. Instead, I'll turn to something that I've seen many times before, to the extent that I could probably quote information technology by now. I'll watch Friends or Desperate Housewives instead of starting one of the shows that I claim to be eager to scout.
And I'g far from the only i guilty of this, as we all seem to adopt rewatching shows rather than discovering new content. The pandemic served simply to highlight this, drawing attention to this habit instilled in usa. TV classics, like The Office, saw considerable increases in watch time during the lockdown, more than so than new shows that came out during this menstruum.
Why practice we elect to rewatch something rather than tick another series off of our to-watch list?
Energy consumption
Watching TV is intended to be a low-energy task. Y'all're not going to the cinema or theatre, simply instead, you lot're settling down on your couch or bed, and tuning in to a bear witness to melody out for a while. The virtually energy-consuming attribute of the activity is choosing what to watch, which is why we experience relieved to take an entire show to binge-watch, as, for that flow of time, the decision has been made for u.s..
The status-quo bias determines that individuals tend to stick with previous decisions every bit the cost of coming to a new decision is mentally tiring. We adopt things to stay every bit they are, using our current baseline as the reference bespeak from which to work from. Examples include staying at your electric current task to avert looking for a new i, which you lot could potentially dislike more. Shopping at the same store to avoid the hassle of finding a new one. And rewatching a show instead of choosing a new ane to attempt.
To avoid the energy-consuming task of looking through possible shows and deciding which to watch, we adopt to repeat a previous conclusion and rewatch something. That option doesn't feel like a choice at all, but rather a continuation of when we starting time watched it. Nosotros rewatch shows to avoid unnecessary energy being dedicated to choosing what to watch instead.
Commitment
I won't try to convince you that monogamy is dead, but rather that Tv set monogamy may be on the downfall. We've become commitment-phobic when it comes to Tv shows, and then dedicating ourselves to several seasons of a new bear witness can experience overwhelming. Later all, it takes just one wrongful character death or poorly executed finale to ruin everything we poured our attention into.
One of the primary perks of rewatching a show is that you're non committing; yous're not guaranteeing what you'll watch for weeks or even months to come up. Instead, information technology is just at present, just 1 or ii episodes. Y'all can pick it upwards and drop it equally you please. Y'all know the story, so any point you bring together at allows you to visit and get out as you delight. This is likewise why sitcoms tend to exist the most rewatched shows, every bit in that location are no immediate storylines to follow; each episode is its ain tale.
When tasked with the pick of watching a moving picture or a series, many say that they go for a serial for the smaller commitment. Even if they take the time for an entire movie, they'd rather watch several episodes. It seems like a smaller cost. This may besides relate to humans' shortened attention bridge, as we find it easier to focus on one xxx-minute episode later on some other rather than an entire motion-picture show.
Control
Humans don't realise how much they cling to control until they lose it. This is why sudden events can traumatise us so much, such every bit losing a loved one or developing an disease. At that place is the result itself, but then also what this upshot means to us and our delicate country of existence. It's the reminder that we're non in control, that life doesn't owe us anything, and annihilation could be taken from us. We don't get to cull our future, as much as we'd like to retrieve nosotros tin.
Nowadays, control drifts even further from our reach. We graduated with unmentionable amounts of debt, information technology'll exist decades earlier we could e'er afford to purchase a house, and many of us will end up doing jobs we despise due to this economy. We can't control when we get up, where we become to work, or where we want to live, as the options are so express. The pandemic only rendered the lack of control deeper, equally we suddenly couldn't leave our homes.
We clutch at the small things in our control, one of which is what we choose to lookout. Streaming services like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime serve only to inundate united states with choices. For once, we're spoiled, with endless thrillers, comedies, dramas and more at our fingertips. Nosotros get to choose what we'll sentinel; we're in control of that. And so nosotros may exercise this control with a safe option, given how new a sensation it is. If we were to cull a wildcard and not bask it, we would arraign ourselves, considering precious time wasted. We utilise this command wisely and choose something familiar to us if but to pretend it was a affair of control in the first place.
It is besides a ways of decision-making what nosotros come across, as we know what is to come. Nosotros know, at least to an extent, how funny or lamentable or uplifting a show is, and so we're controlling how we want to feel, what nosotros want to experience.
Nostalgia
According to Clay Routledge, a psychologist who studies nostalgia at North Dakota State University, at that place are ii strains of nostalgia: historical (nostalgia for the general past) and autobiographical (nostalgia for an individual's specific past). This tin use to watching films or Idiot box shows in two ways. We may watch older content in social club to have historical nostalgia - "Weren't things and so much simpler before the net?"- and rewatch content to have autobiographical nostalgia - "Higher really was the best!"
You may rewatch the same shows that bring you to a more favourable time in your life, one you want to reminisce over. Additionally, you may rewatch shows because of when you start watched them. If you offset discovered Gilmore Girls in higher and would watch it with your flatmates, yous may rewatch it at present to feel that same sense of security and possibility. If Friends was something you enjoyed with your parents on a Friday evening, rewatching information technology may make you feel closer to them.
The betoken is that nostalgia goes farther than the content of the TV show but instead refers to everything that surrounds it. Rewatching a show isn't merely about that show but includes everything surrounding information technology. Who you were when you lot first watched it, who y'all watched it with, fifty-fifty why y'all were watching information technology can have an outcome.
Some shows hold a special place in our heart or memories, then it is merely natural that we'll turn back to it when we desire to feel a sure way or remember something.
The Mere Exposure Issue
The more than you run across someone, the closer you lot feel to them. It'due south as simple every bit that. In that location are exceptions to the rule, such as someone who you accept negative connotations regarding or conflicting personalities. Just generally speaking, nosotros develop a fondness for people we're exposed to repeatedly.
By rewatching shows, you feel closer to the characters portrayed. For example, Rachel in Friends holds a special identify in my heart, one that makes me still follow Jennifer Anniston'south career. My mum loved Rachel, and then we would watch Friends together, and she'd mention how pretty or squeamish she is. This was passed on to me, as we bonded through this mutual amore for a character. In turn, Rachel at present is someone I remember highly of, even though I capeesh all the characters in Friends - every bit true fans practice!
If y'all're feeling depression or static, you lot want to plough to people you know well, as you feel that you can trust them more. You don't want to be encountered past strangers, characters who could do anything or have some undercover revealed that volition alter how you come across them. You want your friends, even if those are backside a screen.
The Mere Exposure Upshot dictates this, a psychological phenomenon in which people tend to develop a preference for things they're more familiar with. By rewatching a show, we have a stronger preference for that over something we've never seen earlier.
The well-nigh-watched shows in 2020
Just in case you doubted the extent to which shows are universally watched, let'south take a look at the nigh-watched TV shows in 2020. This data was obtained by Broadband Deals and published in Jan 2021.
- The Office (US) - Minutes streamed: 57.127 billion
- Grey's Anatomy - 39.405 billion
- Criminal Minds - 35.414 billion
The nigh universally watched Telly evidence of 2020 ended over 7 years agone and yet graced more than Tv set or laptop screens than whatever other show since or before. Whilst Grey'south Anatomy is ongoing, with season 17 currently airing, the big viewership is attributed to the show being added to Disney+ and more streaming services, suggesting it to exist a rewatch as well. Criminal Minds ended in February 2020, indicating a big portion of the viewership to be rewatches as well.
Information technology's no coincidence that these were the virtually-watched shows in 2020, when a pandemic drove u.s.a. all home and Boob tube became our main outlet, bated from food. In times of trouble, we searched for the comfort and nostalgia of our favourite shows.
And hither is the list of the nearly rewatched Telly shows, equally of 2020, here are the titles and the percentage of viewers who watched the series more than once:
- Friends - 63%
- Peep Show - 59%
- The Office (US) - 55%
- Brooklyn 99 - 53%
- RuPaul's Drag Race - 51%
Incredibly, over one-half the people who picket one of these shows entirely will proceed to sentry it again or several more than times. And given that these shows are primarily comedies, it suggests that we do so for comforting purposes rather than to relive certain dramatic moments or search for further pregnant in the script.
Is information technology bad to rewatch shows?
Rewatching shows allows us to counteract loneliness, specially in times such as at present. The developed bonds with characters enables you to obtain a social connectedness right from your couch. Furthermore, information technology's been shown to reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms, having a calming event on your heed.
The issue comes when you rewatch shows as a fashion of living in the by. You don't want to motility forward, and so you rewatch the same show about being in higher, or 1 that reminds yous of a amend time. You remain mentally fixated on this time and hold yourself back in doing so. We refuse to savour the present by idealising the past, which could likewise include electric current TV shows. Nosotros need to remain optimistic well-nigh the future, and part of doing this is through expanding our choice of shows to watch.
Nosotros need to consider our TV habits as more just what we lookout man, for the importance of TV has grown monumentally in recent decades. Our choice of shows reflects our selection of values, interests, mindset and sources of comfort. Past rewatching a testify, we choose information technology over a new feel, preferring this nostalgia or control over the potential another show may hold. Information technology's important to consider why we choose to sentinel a particular show, and if nosotros make up one's mind to motility forwards, making it easier past selecting shows that could fill up that aforementioned yearning.
Source: https://symptomsofliving.com/blog/why-do-we-rewatch-tv-shows