Netflix is great. The shows are what the shows are.
And Netflix, or actually the shows can become addictive.
I watch Netflix almost every day. A number of shows start out OK, but turn addictive around season 4.
You notice that you became addicted if you are craving it, thinking about it, wishing it were already that time of the say when you can watch it.
The shows became addictive, according to what I’ve seen, when there is plot change that turns the show into more of a soap opera than independent episodes.
Soap operas were always addictive. But starting a show as a soap opera is counter productive: intelligent people aren’t attracted, off the cuff, to inane twists and turns of the plot.
But at some point, when the show’s creators really ran out of steam, they do turn the show into a soap opera… slowly and undetected… and even intelligent people get hooked.
It takes a lot of awareness to notice it in time, when you can still quit.
I had the show “Fringe” hook its claws into me… but I have been brave enough to quit. Similar thing happened with Dexter, after the first season.
You need to become self-aware, and track the craving factor. When it becomes strong: you are trading your life for an addictive substance.
I am not talking against watching Netflix: it can be an enriching experience, where you experience way more than your limited work/sleep life allows for.
But I recommend that you quit when you start feeling the pull of addiction.
Please.
PS: addiction, I think, is the toxin that is created in your body in reaction to what you consumed, mentally, emotionally, or physically, that toxin wanting you to consume more of that toxin.
Just look at what you crave. I doubt if anything you crave is good for you, even in small quantities.
To the degree that you can wean yourself off, to the degree that you reclaim your life… otherwise your life belongs to the addiction.
Emotional addiction is the least understood: why would someone put so much attention to their looks or their weight if that is the area where they experience the most humiliation?!
But as I said, the toxin wants more toxin… so the addict keeps their attention on the issue that produces the most pain.
Or people who talk a lot… talk creates toxins… so they talk even more.
Wanting to be stupid: a toxin… creates more wanting.
Unless you recognize these as addiction, you will never be able to reclaim your control, your ownership of your own life.
