Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Correspondence: jolanta. Binge-watching is a relatively new behaviour pattern whose popularity has been increasing since , ultimately to become one of the most popular ways of spending free time, especially among young people. However, there is still a dearth of research on this phenomenon.
The aim of this study is to present the current understanding and psychological conditions of binge-watching, as provided in the research papers published between and This systematic review, including 28 articles, addresses different approaches to defining this behaviour, diverse motivations, personality traits, and risks of excessive binge-watching.
Its results imply that there are two perspectives in understanding binge-watching. The first is related to entertainment, positive emotions, cognition, and spending free time. However, the second perspective emphasises the negative outcomes of excessive binge-watching and symptoms of behavioural addiction. There is undoubtedly a need for further research to be conducted on diversified populations to reach more profound understanding of binge-watching behaviour patterns.
Keywords: binge-watching, behavioural addiction, new technologies, motivation, personality traits. Binge-watching is a relatively new behavioural phenomenon, which is defined as watching between two and six episodes of a TV show in one sitting [ 1 ]. In , Netflix created new ways of consuming TV shows, where the viewer can choose from extensive and diverse content and watch as many episodes of TV series as they want. Furthermore, the whole season of a TV show is available at once.
The viewer does not have to wait a week for the release of the next episode, which is characteristic of traditional television [ 3 ]. The popularity of binge-watching increased between and , ultimately to become a normal way of consuming TV series among general audiences [ 8 ].
