Are You Really Smarter Than Someone Binge-Watching TV?
Explore how much time you actually spend watching series online versus traditional TV and discover if your viewing habits are truly more productive.
Many internet users believe that spending hours engrossed in online series makes them somehow superior to those who watch traditional television. However, a closer look reveals just how mistaken this assumption can be.
Consider the time invested in just one show — for example, eight seasons of a popular medical drama amount to over five days of continuous viewing. And that’s only one of many series you might be watching.
Alongside series, there are movies, shows, and countless videos on platforms like YouTube. Ironically, many of those who binge-watch online series are the same people who often complain, "I don’t have enough time! What am I doing wrong?"
Let’s delve deeper into this issue.
Calculating Your Viewing Time
Start by recalling the movies and series you watched over the last month or year to estimate the total time spent. Services like kinobaza.tv can help track your viewing hours, but any series tracker with time calculation features will do. Alternatively, multiply the length of each episode by the number of episodes per season and the total seasons watched, then convert those minutes into hours or days.
Using such tools, you can accumulate data like this:

For instance, one user spent 4 days, 17 hours, and 34 minutes watching movies, and nearly 32 days watching series. Impressive, isn’t it?
Over approximately a year and a half, more than a month was dedicated to series whose plots are now barely remembered.
Movies typically demand less time, but as Hollywood increasingly produces lower-quality films, viewers often prefer to spend months on beloved series rather than risk wasting hours on uninspiring movies. Similarly, older generations might spend years watching daytime TV shows that offer little value.
Here are some examples of viewing habits from others, showing this is a widespread phenomenon:


Comparing Viewing Habits
Observing my own and friends’ patterns, a typical day includes watching one movie and one to two new episodes of a current series. This adds up to roughly 3 hours daily.
Assuming weekends are similar in duration but without all-day bingeing, that’s approximately 1,095 hours annually — about 1 month and 15 days of pure viewing time, according to Wolfram|Alpha.
Even watching just one episode per day results in 15 days of dedicated viewing over a year.
However, modern series are often downloaded in bulk, leading to binge-watching sessions that further increase viewing time.
Meanwhile, TV enthusiasts typically watch television from around 8 PM to 11 PM daily, averaging the same 3 hours. But instead of scripted series, they may be watching talk shows, daily news, or reality TV.
The content may differ, but the time commitment and impact on your life are comparable. The outcome? Essentially no productivity gain. Food for thought.
Final Thoughts
Completely abandoning series may be extreme. Quality productions like British crime dramas offer enriching entertainment worth the time. However, mindlessly consuming long-running series or low-quality content can deceptively convince you that you’re making better choices than traditional TV viewers.
In reality, both habits can be equally time-consuming and unproductive if not approached mindfully.
Discover the latest news and current events in Motivation as of 20-11-2021. The article titled " Are You Really Smarter Than Someone Binge-Watching TV? " provides you with the most relevant and reliable information in the Motivation field. Each news piece is thoroughly analyzed to deliver valuable insights to our readers.
The information in " Are You Really Smarter Than Someone Binge-Watching TV? " helps you make better-informed decisions within the Motivation category. Our news articles are continuously updated and adhere to journalistic standards.


