Binge-watching is injurious to health

We hear that US surgeon general Vivek Murthy is keen to have a warning label on social media platforms telling parents that using social media may damage the mental health of young people. Such a plan of action, requiring US Congress approval, is sweet. After all, how many millions, nay, billions, would have benefited if a similar statutory warning went with what earlier generations of guardians would fret over: TV-watching. So, while backing Murthy’s concerns as we keep on scrolling, may we highlight the need for a similar warning for another recreational blight: binge-watching.

Binging-streaming programmes has become the new malaise. Let there be a message before each OTT multi-season, infinite-episode show rolls: ‘Excessive consumption of streaming shows may lead to acute square-eyeball syndrome, chronic couch potatoism and severe reality detachment.’ We have all faced the horror of realising we’ve just spent the last 36 hours in a dimly-lit room, the only movement being the occasional stretch to grab another snack, or the Herculean effort of pressing ‘Next Episode’. The warning could also include symptoms such as forgetting how to participate in normal human conversation, starting to speak in TV quotes and developing an unrealistic expectation that life’s problems can be solved in 30 mins. Or 50, if you press pause too many times.