Netflix Is Ruining Your Life | Hacker News Reader

Netflix Is Ruining Your Life

medium.com

12 pointsloser77727 comments

> When was the last time you finished a binge at 3:00 AM on a work-night (or any night to be quite honest) and felt good about yourself?

> I hope the answer makes you sick.

> ...what do you have to show for it besides missed opportunities, compromised goals, an empty bank account, and an unhappy outlook on life?

The language in this article is deeply worrying and disturbing. Shame and guilt are tools of religion and cults, and are being wielded here similarly, but given the author's apparent outlook on life—that earning money is the sole purpose and your only value in life is your bank balance—I'm somewhat more inclined to be worried for the author rather than for his potential readers.

Indeed. And I hope the author has no intention of having children.

Because having children is a guaranteed path to missed opportunities, compromised goals, and a decreased bank account. It's what comes with raising kids - because it's not all about yourself anymore.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. It sounds like my tone was too strong for this topic. I appreciate your feedback.

"This is where things begin to break down though. Money is more-or-less an unlimited resource. Additional money can always be earned. This may be easier for some than others, but it can be done. Time is a finite resource. There is no adding time to your clock. That clock is going to continue ticking into perpetuity at the same pace"

I'm really skeptical of anyone who promotes that enjoying oneself is a waste of human existence.

Blame Calivinism. My grandpa always said that doing things “for fun” was stupid. Everything other than work, family or church was stupid really. Now he’s 90, his wife died and he finally goes for a weekly ride on his electric bike with a friend and for the first time I heard him say that they have lots of fun together. I wish him all the joy in the world but it was sad for me to hear.

I enjoy TV and movies in moderation, as I hope others do. I am hoping to help people who have crossed the line and are no longer consuming in moderation. Thank you for reading I appreciate your comment!

"I am talking about 46.5 hours of 100 percent concentration. It could have changed your life."

This is nuts, an hour or so per day of low-quality time in the evening after doing a full days work and various chores, gym etc will never be 100% concentration. The only way it's going to change your life is to burn you out.

There are marginally more productive things you could be doing that don't require too much energy, say reading a business book, but do that for a month of evenings and see how you feel, I guarantee it wont be better.

I really thought that this was one of the rare things virtually everyone agreed upon - trying to be productive all the time is counterproductive. I've always known some "real-life min-maxers" but even those are more about 'optimizing your leisure time' and less about demonizing spending a couple of hours a day having non-challenging fun.

Absolutely correct. Trying to be productive all the time is counter productive. I believe that we can train ourselves to enjoy leisurely activities that benefit our health / relationships as much or more than media consumption. What if we went on a 30 minute walk every evening and chatted with a significant other / child instead of scrolling through Facebook?

I think author doesn’t understand opportunity cost. While I doubt few are rationally examining other tasks that will benefit humanity vs. watching an episode of Breaking Bad, this is the trade off decision made for each episode.

I think author is partially correct in that people could do more with their life, but watching video has other benefits- stress relief, education, edification.

The author comes off as an ascetic against pleasure as a waste of time.

I think the gauge would be whether it is impacting your work, social life, or emotional well-being. If not, then it’s up to the individual to judge. Otherwise, OP gets into some rathole of optimizing other people’s lives without knowing them. You may as well complain about commuting, cooking and eating meals vs soylent, commenting on message boards, sleeping more than 4 hours, waiting at stop lights, etc.

Wow, at least for me personally, I could not disagree more!

I work too much, am always taking an online tech class, and read a tech book at least once a month.

To me, I feel like I am doing a good thing when I enjoy something on Netflix or spend a couple of hours reading a good book (fiction, not work related).

It is called ‘down time.’

Ditto. I have a seemingly infinite "to watch" list that I'd very much like to get to someday.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post! It sounds like you have a great balance in life and understanding of 'down time'. I appreciate your comment.

From the author's bio: "Recreational golfer"

I could write a similar column about how he is wasting his time playing golf. Is hitting a ball with a stick and trying to get that ball into a hole the "most important investment you can make is in yourself"? Doubtful.

People waste time in many ways … and they enjoy life in different ways. Not all of life needs to be the constant pursuit of something more, better, new, etc. Sometimes it's ok to just sit back and enjoy it … even if that means playing a round of golf or binging a few episodes of a show on Netflix.

A lot of the argument would apply to normal network TV too - that it is basically a waste of time. Well maybe, but at least when I watch Netflix I'm watching something I've read reviews of and have a good idea if I'd like it. When I'm visiting my father he just channel surfs watching five minutes of this and five minutes of that because he is looking for something interesting and not finding anything - that seems far worse of a waste of time.

Ahh yes, the wisdom of youth.

According to my Trakt.tv account I've spent 58 days, 3 hours, 49 mins watching 760 movies and 110 days, 17 hours, 34 mins watching 4,521 television episodes.

I am completely okay with this.

Should have spent that time "traveling to foreign countries" instead, to really jack up the progress of global warming.

I've done plenty of traveling to other countries, thank you very much.

Sorry I was making satire of the blog post.

Sorry, humour bypass on my end. But yes, this is a bad blog post.

Why the focus on Netflix? Just because it's popular right now?

This blog post honestly just comes across as "I'm better than you because I claim to use my time more productively, and I'm telling you how to live your life."

Speaking of a waste of time, I'd like my 5 minutes back after reading that.

Amen to this. All these arguments are no different to binge-watching a DVD box set. Hell, if I choose to watch the entire series of something in one or two sittings, that's my choice. I barely use my Netflix subscription, but when I do, it's appreciated - I've discovered many independent movies, some quite low-budget, that I've really enjoyed through it.

Just like any technology, use in moderation is important. Netflix has a great model - low price, tonnes of content, just use it wisely.

The article was pretty useless.

In 480p? This isn’t 2004.

This is about television watching, not Netflix. You seem to have deftly missed the author’s point about the value of time.

As a millennial I think I confused Netflix with television consumption. I (and most people around my age) don't consume cable television. I used Netflix wrongfully as a scapegoat for television media as a whole, which has in turn confused some readers.

There's no confusion that netflix == television, and also no confusion in the tone of your "article"

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