When walking through Holden and Shiple halls during the later hours of the day, you typically hear the sounds of a popular Netflix series behind closed doors.
Why do so many students decide to watch Netflix? And how does watching one episode before going to sleep turn into an episode marathon?
Graduate student Matt Ybarra suggested that people begin watching Netflix at the University of Detroit Mercy because of the limited things to do for students who live on campus.
“I think that’s how it starts because you are just looking for something to do, but then you get caught up in the show,” he said. “Then when you have something to do, like homework, you are too into the show to do other things.”
Critics of our generation say that we are too reliant on technology and we cannot have a face-to-face conversation with each other, or even on the telephone.
Does that mean Netflix is just another time wasting app on a smart phone?
My answer to that is no.
We have been on campus for less than a month as the winter semester gets underway, and I have overheard numerous conversations about the popular new documentary “Making a Murderer” in classrooms and TDR. All of these involve animated speech and undivided attention.
An exciting conversation that lasted many minutes was provided by students who were home on break doing exactly what they would have been doing at school too: watching Netflix.
Junior engineering major Marcus Barnett said his reason for watching Netflix was because it offered better options than switching on the television.
“There is nothing better on TV,” he said. “I would rather pick what I want to watch at any given time.”
While the freedom to choose what to watch on Netflix can be very overwhelming for some people, this is not the case for arguably the biggest Netflix watcher on campus: Matt DeVries.
DeVries, who also plays on the men’s soccer team, experienced an injury earlier this year and turned to Netflix for comfort during the long hours of recovery.
“House of Cards,” “Breaking Bad,” “The Office,” “Dexter,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Family Guy,” “Dexter” – DeVries has watched them all.
“Breaking Bad was my favorite,” he said. “I have a real connection with Walter White.”
DeVries went on to say that Netflix can potentially be a popular pastime for student-athletes because of the amount of fatigue that their bodies experience from all the games, practice and travelling.
No matter the reason that students on campus have for watching Netflix, it does not appear that it is going away anytime soon.
Leslie is a VN staff writer
