A recent study by Currys uncovered how much time people spend choosing a programme or movie to enjoy at the end of the day. They asked 2,018 Brits to understand their challenges and difficulties in selecting what to watch.
Out of those asked, 1 in 10 admitted they spend up to two hours trying to find something to watch, but across all respondents, the average time spent on this decision dilemma equaled 30 minutes a day.
For those who find themselves watching TV daily, this 30 minutes per day translates to a staggering 182.5 hours per year dedicated to the daunting task of deciding what to watch. That’s equivalent to just over 7 days annually lost to “choice paralysis”.
The time spent on playing the elusive game of: “what to choose” is equivalent to the time it would take to binge watch all of the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation – a TV show that has 7 seasons or watching the entirety of Breaking Bad nearly 3 times!
In the same time it takes the average Brit to choose what to watch on TV over a year, a person could watch a range of entire series of popular TV shows, some more than once. Here are just a few examples.
15 popular TV shows you could watch instead of searching for content on streaming services
| TV Show | Duration in hours /weeks | Number of seasons | Number of episodes | Times watched in 182.5 hours |
| Star Trek: The Next Generation | 178 hours (7 days, 10 hours) |
7 | 178 | 1 |
| House M.D. | 176 hours (7 days, 8 hours) |
8 | 177 | 1 |
| The Vampire Diaries | 171 hours
(7 days, 3 hours) |
8 | 171 | 1 |
| Dragon Ball Z | 170 hours (7 days, 2 hours) |
16 | 291 | 1 |
| The West Wing | 154 hours (6 days, 10 hours) |
7 | 156 | 1.2 |
| Gilmore Girls | 153 hours (6 days, 9 hours) |
7 | 153 | 1.2 |
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 144 hours (6 days) |
7 | 144 | 1.3 |
| The Big Bang Theory | 139 hours (5 days, 19 hours) |
12 | 279 | 1.3 |
| Lost | 121 hours (5 days, 1 hour) |
6 | 121 | 1.5 |
| Friends | 121 hours (5 days, 1 hour) |
10 | 236 | 1.5 |
| Sons of Anarchy | 105 hours (4 days, 9 hours) |
7 | 92 | 1.7 |
| The Office (US) | 99 hours (4 days, 3 hours) |
9 | 201 | 1.8 |
| Mad Men | 92 hours (3 days, 20 hours) |
7 | 92 | 1.9 |
| Game of Thrones | 70 hours (2 days, 22 hours) |
8 | 73 | 2.6 |
| Breaking Bad | 62 hours (2 days, 14 hours) |
5 | 62 | 2.9 |
Nearly 60% of Brits give up after endless scrolling
The survey also revealed that nearly 60% admit that after endless scrolling, they give up on finding something to watch altogether.
Endless scrolling for the perfect show can lead to overwhelming anxiety, making the search for something enjoyable more stressful than fun.
Dr. George Fieldman, a Consultant Psychologist, offers insights into the reasons behind people’s anxiety when it comes to deciding what to watch on TV, he said: “Fear and danger are poorly correlated which means that people fear making the wrong choice. Even when it comes to picking something to watch on TV still comes with a fair amount of factors to consider which can lead you to spiral into anxiety. What you watch is a significant investment of time and people don’t want to make the wrong choice. It has to be worthwhile to justify spending that time which could be spent elsewhere.
“Those that suffer from anxiety are more likely to experience choice paralysis. This usually happens because making the right choice is important for them and they overestimate the impact of making the wrong decision.”
You can find the full study here: https://www.currys.co.uk/techtalk/tv-advice/no-you-choose.html
ENDS
