In recent years, the stereotype that America is a culture based on quick, need-it-now, instant gratification has skyrocketed in accuracy. From our food to the way that we shop, Americans can't seem to get the things that they want fast enough. This included, t's not surprising at all that this motif has leaked into the way that Americans experience their entertainment- new streaming services, specifically Netflix, have experienced booming success from the binge watching obsession that so many Americans have become enamored with. By not having commercial breaks or needing to wait for the next episode in a season, Netflix has capitalized and has made billions on this very idea. (Pajiba, "The Battle of The Binge", 2014)  As a society, the way in which Americans experience their entertainment has always been shown to mirror their own culture. 

With all of that being said, how will these sudden and drastic shifts in the way that we consume our entertainment impact our culture? While cable services have provided America with its favorite pastime for nearly a century, large streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu, have moved in by providing easier ways to watch content. It is because of this, among others, that cable is going through a growing period and will now have to compete with streaming in order to keep up.

Cable television was first released in 1948. The idea was a popular one among American families and was often used as a bonding and pastime for families to do together, typically to watch cartoons, sports, or the news. This was not limited to the 50's- this was massively popular in the 2000's. Back in a time where children typically relied on the outdoors as their sole form of entertainment, save for if the weather didn't permit so, there were about 69 million subscribers in June 2001 to a multichannel video program distributer (MVPD) (Russo, "FCC ADOPTS", 2002). However, cable has experienced a very slow but steady decline since then- as our culture becomes more greedy and impatient for entertainment, the amount of subscribers dropped to 54.4 million subscribers by December 2015. Contributing to this seemingly absent chunk of subscribers was more than likely due to the rise of a certain streaming service- that's right, Netflix. 

Netflix was founded in 1997 as an alternative to Blockbuster and would send DVDs to subscribers' houses as they wanted them, and subscribers were able to send them back whenever they felt that they were finished with them. After deciding to start a streaming program in June of 2007 (Pogue, "A Stream of Movies, Sort of Free", 2007), Netflix experienced a rocky, but promising start. However, after fighting through various controversies and low subscriber counts, from 2012 to 2013 Netflix experienced a jump in subscribers from 29.4 million to 33 million (Paskin, "THE NEW RULES", 2013) (respectively). Even further, those numbers nearly doubled to 69.17 million subscribers in October of 2015. The question still stands: how has our culture changed in a way that is reflected in the way that we experience our entertainment? 

Streaming services will eventually lead to the steady decline in active participation from our culture- let me elaborate. Let's go ahead and say that Netflix is an exquisite buffet that's all for you, all the time, overflowing with all of your favorite foods- fried chicken, sushi, even all your favorite types of pizza, piled on top of each other in all of their delicious glory. Yeah, you can have your favorite kind of pizza without having to worry about ever running out, but after a while, you're not going to want to go back to waiting for the delivery guy to come and bring it to you, especially because they take way too long. But in doing this, has pizza lost its sparkle, even if you can have that along with eight different kinds of mac and cheese? If you said no, then sorry, but you're already trapped. Streaming services such as Netflix have "Trojan Horse'd" their way into American citizen's lives by coming across as a cheaper alternative to cable networks, who have had to jack up their prices in order to compensate with their steady decline in subscribers, and boasting the ever glorious lack of commercials. Now, you're able to watch all nine seasons of The Office without having to hear your local car salesman spew out their latest mediocre bargain at you- and why wouldn't you want that?  

However, one needs to at least consider the fact that maybe having all of these television shows on demand without anything to interrupt you, save for when the obnoxious, "Continue watching?" box pops up, could eventually turn into something more negative. As stated earlier, America, as a society, has become increasingly demanding for things right here, right now, no exceptions. When content is streamed without breaks like this, it can easily cause a drastic shrinkage in attention spans. 

When it comes to cable networks, you have hundreds of channels to pick from when it comes to deciding what you want to watch, but this also means taking the time to sit down, flip through channel by channel, and settle on one, only to watch for a few seconds and either lose interest or be interrupted by a commercial. All of these variables go into watching cable, but with streaming services, you're able to be in full control of what you're going to watch- it's much more stream lined. However, it is this very stream line that has been causing the slow, ever-present decline in American society's overall ability to pay attention to something for a prolonged period of time. According to information released by statistic brain, the average attention span for humans has shrunk down to about eight seconds. This has also led to an ever-present restlessness when it comes to being on one gadget at a time, with most people switching between these an average of 21 times in an hour. (Fleit, "How to Market to the Shrinking Attention Span", 2016)

As more shows are shown on a variety of streaming services, viewers must pay attention for a longer period of time since there are no breaks in the time it takes to watch it. Usually, on cable, shows are peppered with commercial breaks about every five minutes to keep the viewer moderately interested in the show that is being watched, and because of this, many shows do not have the proper substance needed to have to pay full attention. This is why many of the home improvement shows on networks such as HGTV are so easy to half watch while you're doing homework or chores- they are constantly needing to repeat basic elements of the show to keep viewers updated despite the gaps in information that the commercials create. It's because of this that it is nearly impossible to watch one of these shows without commercials without getting frustrated at the constant repeating of information that they literally just said. This does not mean that streaming services are the next great evil, so to speak- there are many positive aspects to having subscriptions to one of the many services that are out there.

When it comes to being financially literate, streaming services have proved to be the more economically viable option than when it comes to choosing cable television. Having an alternative that is better priced, with many benefits, such as no commercials, thousands of on demand television shows/movies, and the convenience of being able to stream it onto a variety of different devices, this is very appealing to many families- especially ones that are looking to trim down on any unnecessary expenses (Canata-Bowman, "6 Reasons Netflix is Winning", 2016). Families are now able to have several streaming services, let's use Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon, and a basic cable package of no more than 20 channels, for nearly half of what it costs for a full cable package this includes HBO and ESPN (Jones, "Cable TV VS Streaming: Breaking Down the Costs", 2014). If you're able to pick what you want to watch, pay less, and experience more, then why would you not want to pick that over the more expensive counterpart? 

Another positive aspect when it comes to streaming services is that the original content which is produced from streaming services, a stark difference in quality when compared to their cable network counterparts. In recent years, Netflix has pumped out a variety of original shows that have gone on to rival primetime shows from HBO, FX, and other big name networks. Some of the more well-known shows, Orange is the New Black and House of Cards being the two main powerhouses, have become critically acclaimed, and viewers can't seem to get enough of them (Carr, "The Stream Finally Breaks the Dam of Cable TV", 2014). Though one may think that releasing all of the episodes in one season is a risky move, it has proved time and time again to leave the viewers with an insatiable thirst for more that won't be filled until they find their next show to binge watch or there is a new season of said show. These aforementioned shows have done so well in bringing more people on board with their services and are arguably what helped to ignite the initial glorification of the binge watch society that has now become the norm in American entertainment. 

The phenomenon mentioned above has been taken and completely run with due to the millennial generation. Millennials are arguably the most influential group when it comes to dealing with content that there is right now- they determine what will be successful and what is out of style, and when it comes to how we watch our shows it is no different . In recent years, it has suddenly become almost "cool" to waste an entire weekend watching an entire series in the dark on your computer- relatable even! If you mention Netflix to anyone between the ages of 16-24, chances are they'll immediately start listing their favorite shows, what they're currently watching, and how long their last session with Netflix was (Vodicka, "How Did Netflix Win Over Millenials?") . In fact, in one of the most unintended marketing ploys yet, millennials have coined the term, "Netflix and chill" for when they want to have a cute guy/gal over and hang out. There may not even be hanging out involved, or even Netflix, (this is beside the point) but regardless, this has become a phenomenon- it's suddenly cool to not want to do anything and to be completely lethargic and stare at a screen all weekend. Why has this happened? Why have the days where the cool thing to do was to go and hike a mountain or even just go sit outside been thrown out the window? So far, all signs point to the increase in technology being readily available. 

 When millennials were growing up, for the most part there wasn't an option to just sit inside and watch television all day. If a millennial were home, their parents generally made them go outside and play with their friends, the only rules being to not run in the streets and come home when the streetlights came on. If you were to tell them that soon enough That's So Raven could be played all day every day without any sort of restriction, they wouldn't have been able to fathom it- watching television was typically only for when it was rainy and there wasn't anything else to do, or it was seen as a privilege. With this new generation, however, Netflix and videogames is the only thing that can keep them entertained, and sometimes even that isn't enough. Many children that are the ages of 6-14 now need some form of constant entertainment, whether it's the newest app or if it's watching Netflix while playing another game at the same time. The need for constant stimulation is so present and necessary that to take it away from this new generation would be seen as nearly cruel. Are we setting up current generations for a failure that we can't even see yet? 

This new threat to younger generations' attention span unfortunately is all derived from the instant gratification that comes from streaming services. These new generations are expectant and hungry, constantly waiting for the next thing to grab their attention and becoming restless when this doesn't happen. This phenomenon has even pushed its way into the entertainment itself. If you try to watch a movie from the early 90's versus one from the past few years, it is drastically more difficult because there is so much more going on in the newer movies. There must be something new/funny/crazy/action packed/visually stimulating happening at all time on the screen otherwise it is deemed boring. This is because new generations, and even older ones since they live in this world too, constantly are waiting for the next thing to happen so often that they don't stop to see what is going on at the current point in time. If this is all derived from the instant gratification and satisfaction that streaming services so happily lay out for American society to greedily lap up, why is it still so glorified? 

While one can't necessarily blame streaming services for every single bad thing that is wrong with American society, one can't help but look at the similarities. Yes, streaming services seem to have numerous positive aspects and is quite possibly the future of entertainment technology, but if something is able to alter the core of an entire country's culture so strongly, it shouldn't go unnoted. Though there are many positive things for the present time, the negative effects that can occur from this in the future shouldn't be ignored.

