Taking back the control

 

Every time I open the Word to start writing something for this blog, I would be distracted by either office, home, Saanvi (my daughter) or something else (you would soon know what this ‘something else’ is!).

I would always tell myself to take out more time to spend on writing or reading than watching Netflix (that’s the ‘something else’). But in vain, whenever and whatever little time I get, I would automatically (yes like a machine) resume to Netflix on my mobile phone which is almost always glued to my hand. That is the story of last 2years.

Hi! I am Tripta and I am an addict. Yes Netflix is a like a new drug. “Netflix and chill”, which I keep hearing everywhere is actually, “Netflix and sleepless nights and hung-over mornings and lethargy and mental health sabotaged”. It never ends, at least on TV the episode ends and you move on until they air the next episode. We called it the Idiot box. But Netflix is worse, okay so the idea is not to single out the Netflix, Amazon, Voot, Hotstar etc, are all in the same category. Here Netflix just symbolizes this OTT mania, where there are endless opportunities for the creators and never-ending streaming for viewers from across the globe. The never ending streaming has taken over our lives where we lose control of your lives and are always driven by the desire to watch just 1-more episode. You get caught up in “whats going to happen next” loop. It never ends.

I read this statement by Netflix CEO some time back, “You get a show or a movie you're really dying to watch, and you end up staying up late at night, so we actually compete with sleep,” Reed Hastings said. “And we're winning!”.  Of course you are winning, so many of my friends beaming with pride tell their tales of binge watching all night. Little do we realize what it is doing to our health or we do realize but turn a blind eye to it. Instead of chill, it is adding to the stress. It is causing mental and physical health problems, due to lack of sleep and continuous exposure to screen. These are not scars of some war to be proud of, this pain is self inflicted. My sample set might be small but this is backed by secondary research. You can sit and introspect how you feel after your binge watching sessions and don’t let the adrenaline cloud that judgment for you.

I did realize this long back but it is taking me some time to get a hold of things. I am literally training my mind to keep my phone away and not think about what happened to the character next. It is not easy but once you start to put your phone aside and not click on that red N icon when you lie down on bed to sleep, you definitely feel good the next morning. You feel relaxed and it makes your day more productive. It is time we stop losing to Netflix and get our sleep back.