Science says binge-watching TV together improves your relationship
It’s a common occurrence for most people these days: You’re watching an episode of your favorite TV show and it rolls to credits, leaving you with the decision to get yourself off your couch and do something productive, or watch the next episode.
And when you do click the next episode, it’s sometimes accompanied with guilt as you think about all the other things you should be doing with your time.
But a new study suggests that time spent binge-watching shows isn’t necessarily time wasted, as long as you have someone to do it with.
Published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, the study actually concluded that if you spend time watching TV shows with your significant other it can improve your relationship. Studies have shown that partners who share experiences and social groups are closer with one another.
“Sharing experiences with a romantic partner is critical to deepening interdependence and promoting love and intimacy in close relationships. This process is most frequently conceptualized as sharing experiences ... like trying a new hobby or revealing private thoughts to a partner, but gaining a complete understanding of close relationships requires looking beyond [those experiences] and examining how relationships function within a broader social context,” the study says. “The current research adds to evidence demonstrating the importance of engaging in activities with one’s partner that expand the boundaries of the self and allow couples to turn two separate individuals into an interdependent ‘we.’”
Some studies in the past have suggested that over-fascination with media tends to undermine social relationships, but this study says the opposite. While engaging in hobbies and social groups together also helps relationships, TV shows allow couples to participate in discussions and gossip about the characters and fictional world, which creates an extension of their real shared social experiences.
“Our findings support the growing evidence that like other forms of narrative, contemporary media benefits people by providing a rich, psychologically meaningful social world. The current research extends these findings to show that fictional social worlds can also bring relationship partners closer together,” the study says. “In particular, sharing media may help maintain a sense of sharing a social world with partners, which can particularly benefit relationships that lack an integrated social network.”
Netflix studied binge-watching habits of its shows and determined the median amount of time spent binge watching is between an hour and two and a half hours per day, depending on the type of TV show.
Past studies have suggested binge-watching could be linked to depression, lack of self-regulation and loneliness. If that’s true, maybe binge-watching with a partner could solve that issue.
This story was originally published September 15, 2016 at 8:27 AM with the headline "Science says binge-watching TV together improves your relationship."