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The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Netflix addiction stole years of my life

Illustration by Rachel Dugo
Illustration by Rachel Dugo

As I contemplated writing this column, I also thought about procrastinating a while longer to watch Netflix instead.

I think I have a problem. I’m addicted to Netflix.

I’ve heard the first step to recovery is recognizing the problem. So I’m going to lay it out now: on an average day, I’d say I watch at least two hours of Netflix.

My morning starts with a cup of coffee and an episode of “American Dad” or “Family Guy.” I’ve most likely already seen these episodes at least once.

In class, I sometimes contemplate what I’m going to watch once I get home.

I’ve seen every single “American Dad,” “Family Guy,” “Archer” and “Bob’s Burgers” episode there is to watch.

I once killed a whole season of “The Blacklist” in just a few days — that’s an hour for each episode with 22 episodes in a season.

“Are you still watching?” Silly Netflix, of course I’m still watching.

I was in denial for quite some time.

“’Family Guy’ brings up social problems in an unconventional way, it’s educational,” I would argue. Yeah, keep telling yourself that Jane.

I had my come-to-Jesus moment when I thought I could manage reading 40 pages of “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” with Netflix still running in the background.

I decided at that moment I had to quit cold turkey. I was going to give up Netflix for a whole day.

The minutes slowed and seconds lingered like a clock on the wall loudly ticking away.

So I decided to kill time playing solitaire on my phone. Then I realized something: these distractions are taking away from the important stuff.

Always being technologically stimulated was taking away from the things I could be enjoying in real life.

Even if it’s just going downtown to enjoy a coffee on a Saturday, it’s better than sitting on my ass for hours watching “How I Met Your Mother.” She’s only in the show for like four episodes anyway, what a waste of time.

Although I gave up on quitting Netflix, I can now turn it off without feeling like I’m missing out on life.

Julianna Eveland can be reached at [email protected] or @janeca12 on Twitter.

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