To View the Next Episode or Not: Analyzing Problematic Series Watching and Escapism among Young Adults

Description

Page: 325-330

Diksha Chandel¹ and Komila Parthi² (Department of Psychology, CDGGDC Haripur (Guler), (Affiliated to Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh¹ and Department of Psychology, DAV College, Sector 10, Chandigarh (Affiliated to Panjab University, Chandigarh), Chandigarh²)

With the advent of the Jio network in India, series watching has increased tremendously. It can be termed as the new age TV watching with the removal of time limit to watching and easy accessibility. This might lead to an increase in escapism which is the tendency to escape from the real world to the delight or security of a fantasy world. Escapism has been studied for the longest time as a coping mechanism to evade reality. The present study is conducted on 100 subjects, 50 males and 50 females in the age range of 18-26 years in Chandigarh. The study aims to understand the relationship between escapism and series-watching. It is also an attempt to answer the question “To view the next episode or not?” The results show that people who engage in problematic series-watching have high scores on escapism. They engage in series watching to avoid negative feelings and sometimes to increase positive affect. Interestingly, significant gender differences emerged in problematic series watching and escapism with females having high mean scores on both dimensions. The results suggest that watching a series is the route to escape or attain short-term relief from the daily turmoils for young adults.