Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is apparently making your life better. Not only are you and your children spending less time watching ads, binge-watching Netflix is also improving your relationship. A new study suggests that binge-watching “House of Cards” or “Orange is the New Block” is better for your relationships. The next time you have a fight with your significant other, sit down and watch 10 hours of your favorite programs.
Netflix, Inc. Can Improve Your Relationships
Do you feel like you and your partner are wasting your lives watching television? Well, even if you are, you can at least take comfort in the fact that binge-watching Netflix is making your relationship healthy.
University of Aberdeen researchers published a new study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships entitled “Let’s stay home and watch TV.” It concluded that the more time couples spent watching films, TV shows and streaming services like Netflix the more committed they felt.
The habit of binge-watching had the greatest effect on couples without mutual friends. The study revealed that the characters they watched served as their real-life social circle. In other words, shared in-jokes and memories are far less likely to happen when the couple does not have the same friends.
Essentially, those characters you watch on your TV set become your friends.
“One of the cornerstones of close relationships is interdependence,” Dr. Sarah Gomillion, lead study author, told BBC News. “As intimacy deepens, couples increasingly share aspects of their lives. Shared media can enhance interdependence and allow people to compensate for lacking a shared social network in the real-world.”
It seems, however, that couples already know this. A Propeller Insights and Xfinity poll found that a majority of millennial couples believe television has strengthened their bond.
Simply put: if you want to have a better relationship then forget going outside. You just need to watch more Netflix!
How Else is Netflix, Inc. Affecting Your Life?
It seems Netflix has impacted your personal life in more ways than one.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Netflix is helping your kids watch fewer ads. This past spring, the same results were found in adults. This helps us save years worth of commercials in our lifetime.
Despite the hours of entertainment, binge watching is not good for your overall health. Whether it’s your physical body or your brain, binge-watching Netflix comes with many unwanted side effects.
For instance, binge-watching five hours of television can make you feel sluggish and hungry. Meanwhile, if you spent five hours binge-watching a sitcom without a cliffhanger then you are going to enter into a complex emotional state. This means you’re going to miss out on the so-called friends you were hanging out with.
Obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease are some of the physical health effects you could experience.
Last year, each Netflix user spent on average nearly 600 hours watching Netflix. Is it no wonder that there would be unintended consequences of your love affair with “House of Cards”?
With the cold weather approaching, it seems we’re going to be spending more hours on Netflix.
