welcome to the first episode of elephant english podcasts today we're going to be talking about binge watching according to the oxford languages dictionary binge watching can be defined as the practice of watching multiple episodes of a television program in rapid succession typically by means of dvds or digital streaming in other words binge watching is when you watch a lot of episodes in a row on a platform like hbo or netflix in one sitting without getting up to do anything else this year i've binge watched the entire season of peaky blinders and bridgeton in the winter and when i was ill but it isn't something that i normally do because it takes up a lot of time it's getting quite common though and you have probably heard your friends or family saying that they have watched a whole season or series in a matter of days or weeks so today we're going to talk about whether binge watching is bad for you or not on the one hand binge watching theories can help us de-stress and escape reality for a few hours when we come back from work or school the only thing that we normally want to do is relax and relieve this pressure that we're feeling and binge watching series satisfies that need because of the dopamine that is released in our brain when we're watching our favorite series also we create bonds with the characters that we watch on tv they become almost friends of ours as we watch them so much and so much of what happens in their lives as we enjoy this bond we don't want to stop watching and this makes us binge watch even more it's also true that people seem to enjoy the series more when they binge watch them sometimes the storylines are so complex or there are so many characters that it's just easier to watch several episodes in a row i don't know if it happens to you but often when i'm watching tv with adverts i can't even remember what was i was watching after the seven minutes of adverts have finished so imagine waiting one or two days or even a week between each episode i think that you wouldn't remember what was happening finally one of the most important reasons that i think people like binge watching is because they want to finish the series before anybody tells them a spoiler about what happens at the end this has happened to me before when i have overheard a conversation or when i have read a comment that someone has put on social media it's a shame when you discover the ending of the story before you've actually finished watching it yourself on the other hand when you binge watch a show it feels like you are wasting more time than if you watch the episode separately over a longer period of time watching five episodes in one sitting can't be good for your health either for obvious reasons it is true though that streaming platforms like netflix want you to consume as much as possible when you finish watching an episode a new one starts automatically after 15 seconds if you don't press pause so cliff hangers which can be defined as a dramatic and exciting ending to an episode of series leaving the audience in suspense and anxious not to miss the next episode they don't help either when you don't know what will happen in the next episode and you're too excited or curious to wait until the following day you normally start to watch the next episode to see what happens so today we have just seen the advantages and disadvantages of binge watching in my opinion all things in moderation is the best principle to follow in this case it is fine to binge watch a series on a rainy day when you're feeling ill or you have nothing better to do but i do think that you shouldn't take over your life but what do you think do you think that binge watching is bad for you or not and do you often binge watch series so please leave a comment below about what you think about the topic i have also created activities based on this topic you can find the activities and the transcription of this video in the link in the description i hope you enjoyed this first episode and please like it thank you