[Editorial Tuesday] Why Shouldn’t You Binge-Watch Anime?

With the advent of show streaming and businesses like Netflix and Hulu, watching your favorite shows whenever and wherever you want has never been easier. No longer are you tied to your television having to worry about show times and commercial breaks! All of your favorite shows are available to you on your own terms! Even anime is easy to find thanks to help of companies like Crunchyroll and Netflix who provide anime to you when you want them on any device. Imagine, you no longer have to depend on the likes of Youtube or Google to find a show that you want, and then watch it solely on your computer.

Yes, with it becoming easier to watch anime wherever and whenever you want than ever before, there are times when we just want to veg out and binge-watch some shows to relax, right? Who wants to add stress by figuring out what to do with our time or separate our time with many different things when you can just watch one show all the way through, right? Or maybe your show is just that good. You just need to know what is going to happen next. In that case, binge-watching is your only option. I’m sure that all of us have felt all of the above at least once in our lives, but should we really be binge-watching anime? Well, proceed if you want to know why your favorite stress relieving hobby might not be so good for you. This is Honey’s Anime with why shouldn’t you binge-watch anime.


Sleep

One of the main reasons why binge-watching overall is not good for you has to do with sleep. Sleep is usually put on the backburner when we start watching something and think to ourselves, “Just one more episode won’t hurt.” As we all know, this type of thinking tends to repeat iself until several hours have passed or worse, we finish the show completely. And there are just some great shows that we know would lead us to this same mindset like Inuyashiki or Ergo Proxy. Tou just have to know what happens next, right? This usually results in many viewers losing hours of sleep that are quite crucial for our normal function.

However, there are some of us who do not have that problem where we sacrifice our sleep for a tv show (because sleep is important, right?). Still, binge-watching has been shown to overstimulate our minds and making sleeping difficult all the same. When you watch a single show for a long period of time, your brain tends to become overstimulated as a result. This could be due to the focus on a singular plot, which can create excitement in viewers. Can you imagine trying to binge-watch shows like Clannad: After Story or Tokyo Ghoul and then just falling asleep right after? Not exactly the easiest task.

Sleep is a rather basic fundamental need that all humans have as it allows their body to rest and recover from the events of the day. This could be mentally or physically, but we all need sleep in order to accomplish that. This lack of sleep or possible insomnia, as a result, causes us to have difficulty in our normal day to day activities like at work or in school. Over long periods of time, your body’s sleep deficit will continue to grow and binge-watching anime won’t be a cure to how exhausted you’ve become.


Isolation

Then there’s the fact that as a viewer, you will be isolating yourself. Wait a minute, Can’t I binge-watch anime with friends? Won’t I be advancing my knowledge so that I can chat with more people online about these anime? Well, while I’m sure the above reasons can be true, that doesn’t mean that it applies to every anime binge. Most people binge-watch shows as a form of stress relief. How often will you be stress-relieving in an effort to talk or be with more people?

Most of the time, when we binge-watch anime, we just want to be able to watch our favorite anime in peace, right? We don’t want to have to hear every little obnoxious opinion about an anime while we watch. We don’t want to have to watch at the same pace as someone or stop for every potty break or snack. We don’t have to explain something to someone who just had to send that text message or scroll through Facebook thinking that a scene was not important. Yeah, you know those people. So most of the time, we are binge-watching anime alone. And usually, we’ll do it after a long day anyway so hanging out with someone might not even be on our minds!

As we become used to this, we choose to spend more time binge-watching anime alone. As life becomes more stressful, that’s just the natural progression of things. Unfortunately, as lives become busier, you start to choose to spend time binge-watching a show rather than doing something that may require more energy, resources, or personal time than you’d like to commit to something.

Your friend wants to go drive down to the beach and then possibly a movie? But that’s precious binge-watching time. Your brother wants to hit the gym and spar. But then what about my shows? Your friend wants to go on a roadtrip for the weekend. But they just released this anime and I have to know what’s going to happen next! It may sound absurd, but after a while, you start to plan your schedule around your anime binges and when someone wants a bit of your time, you feel like you’re sacrificing something. That’s how we become isolated from others thanks to our binges.


Time

Following the same idea, anime binges do tend to take up a lot of time. Unless you watch anime at a faster speed, the normal show will take you at least 3 hours to watch nonstop, give or take a break or an extra episode. If you want to binge-watch a 26 episode anime, you’re out 6 hours of your life. Then, there are the anime that have high numbers like Hunter x Hunter, One Piece, and Fairy Tail. Just when would your anime binge end?

Binge-watching will end up consuming many hours out of your day and while it may consume the same amount of time as watching each episode on separate occasions, you will have to devote large portions of your day to these anime binges. So exactly when would you go grocery shopping, do your laundry, or make dinner? Will you forsake important things like doing homework or work? Binge-watching anime requires a devotion of time so you have to prioritize watching anime over doing things like working or cleaning, which not many people can afford to ignore. Regular binge-watching, especially, will result in things piling up, and while we’d love to be able to watch and do important things at the same time, you know we love our anime subbed so 100% attention is pretty much the least we can devote to our anime.


Final Thoughts

While we here are Honey’s Anime aren’t saying that the occasional anime binge is bad for you, we do want to bring to light some important things that we all should consider when we choose to regularly binge-watch anime. Still, we know that some shows are definitely binge-worthy like Inuyashiki, Attack on Titan, and Claymore.

So, what do you all think about binge-watching anime? Should we do it? Is it bad for us? Do any of us do it more than we should? Please feel free to share all of your thoughts in the comments below!

Kamisama-no-Memochou-wallpaper-700x394 [Editorial Tuesday] Why Shouldn’t You Binge-Watch Anime?

Editor

Author: Jenangelx3

California based workaholic. Current mottos are “I don’t care” and “I’ll try almost anything once”. Interests include traveling, eating, video games, and weightlifting. Currently living life to the fullest, pursuing my happiness, and conquering my fears. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

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