Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The Binge Watch Phenomenon: Health Implications of Marathon Viewing TV Seasons, Movies & Gaming
84 Plays1 year ago
Get ready for a captivating exploration of the binge-watching and binge-gaming phenomenon in this eye-opening episode of CodePlay Culture. Delve into the science behind our insatiable appetite for immersive entertainment experiences, as our hosts Rui and Logan Dunning dissect the mental and physical health benefits and consequences of marathon viewing and gaming sessions. In this fascinating discussion, we examine the allure of binge-watching TV series, movies, and extended gaming sessions, while also addressing the potential impact on our sleep patterns, stress levels, and social interactions. Learn about the importance of striking a healthy balance between indulging in your favorite entertainment pastimes and maintaining your overall well-being. Don't miss this thought-provoking episode that challenges you to reconsider your binge habits and inspires you to find the sweet spot between entertainment and self-care. Plug into CodePlay Culture and uncover the secrets behind your binge-watching and gaming obsessions!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & The Science of Binge Consumption
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Codeplay Culture podcast where we discuss tech, gaming, health, and the world around us. Everyone, thank you for joining us once again. Rui and Logan, today we're going to be talking about the interesting topic of the science of binge consumption, watching movies, TV, games, phone,
00:00:27
Speaker
the psychological and sociological effects of binge watching and our experience and what we've seen in the industry and what you guys are probably all going through as you have winter, as we're post COVID.
Streaming Services & Binge-Watching
00:00:43
Speaker
It's just more and more of that single point of binging, partially due to Netflix and all these other streaming services that makes it super easy for us to
00:00:56
Speaker
you know, binge the heck out of stuff and we love it, you know. But anyhow, Rui, how are you today? What's going on, my dude? Not much, man. I'm doing well. Just the same old man slugging away and, you know, trying to get through each day. But yeah, just plugging away, literally. But yeah, man, binge watching. That's our topic
Accessing Content Before Streaming Era
00:01:18
Speaker
for today. And
00:01:20
Speaker
Right off the bat, I can tell you, man, binge watching is super cool. I just finished watching a show called, I don't know if you heard of it, it's called Lost, where these crazy people, I don't want to tell you what happens at the end. But anyways, they crash on an island and...
00:01:37
Speaker
And they're stuck there and they can't get off or they don't want to get off. Some people do. They got to press a big red button every two hours or 16 hours. I can't remember, but yeah. Awesome show to binge watch just in case anybody's looking for recommendations.
Torrenting Ethics & Justifications
00:01:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's that was an awesome one. Like
00:01:55
Speaker
My wife and I definitely binged watched the heck out of that, and that was pre-Netflix in Canada, like USA had Netflix, but we must have torrented, or Pirate Bay, LimeWire, all of that stuff, just to be able to
00:02:11
Speaker
you know, get it through. We ended up purchasing all of the seasons after, you know, from Walmart in the DVD boxes, which they've never been on shrink wrapped, but that's how we justified the purchase. I'm not sure if you do that sometimes where you will, you know, use it like, okay, we'll, we'll torrent it. And then, you know what, if we really do like it, yeah, we will definitely buy it.
Negative Impacts of Binge-Watching
00:02:33
Speaker
Well, you know, my wife and I are definitely not a,
00:02:36
Speaker
You know, a pirate, like straight, straight away, no matter what, if we do find the content amazing, you know, we will purchase it or at least send something to the artist or creator, because I think one of the some of the services are really lacking that demo or try it before you buy it. Mm hmm. So yeah, I mean, it's like that jiggly stuff, right? You don't want to pirate that that stuff you want to own in its and its box with the artwork and all the all the goodies that come with it.
00:03:05
Speaker
But yeah, back to the binge watching. I couldn't sleep after binge watching that show. I have to tell you, man, I had dreams about it and nightmares about it. And, you know, you want to watch the whole thing in one sitting, but you can't. There's like five seasons or something. Right. So, yeah, man, I found myself thinking about it at night. And for some bizarre reason, I was losing sleep.
00:03:29
Speaker
over the episodes and what was coming next, right?
Meditation & Mental Reset
00:03:35
Speaker
So it definitely had some kind of adverse effects that I didn't anticipate. And which is, I suppose it's one of the downfalls of binge watching that I particularly don't enjoy.
00:03:50
Speaker
Hmm. So would you say like your sleep was, uh, was it the same amount of hours? Was it shorter? Was it less deep? Like what was affected in particular? I don't really know, but I know it was disrupted somehow or maybe not a subconscious level, but it was disrupted. Hmm. Did you wake up feeling refreshed or not?
00:04:11
Speaker
Probably not. I think when I binge watch anything or even binge play, I don't think I wake up feeling refreshed. It seeps into my psyche somehow and it just sits there and festers. So at some point I have to eliminate all that and reset myself and pick up a book and read it, spend time away from screens and just kind of center myself.
00:04:39
Speaker
Right. You know, a lot of people like yourself, myself know the benefit of not doing all those pre habitual tendencies, like over consumption of media in any forms.
Binge Consumption's Effects on Mental State
00:04:52
Speaker
And I'm pro meditation, obviously, like, but not in the traditional sit there with your eyes closed saying Ohm level of meditation, because quite honestly, meditation has a negative, negative sociological connotation these days, at least when you say you think of a
00:05:09
Speaker
a Buddhist monk sitting there all alone, it's like, oh, you do that kind of thing, right? But it's more about, hey, yeah, and become like a mental butterfly and then you're enlightened and then happily ever after. But honestly, there's so much going on, noises, things that are seeking to grab your attention. Just sitting in, you know, a room quiet for 20 minutes without content is
00:05:33
Speaker
is freeing. At first, it's so boring and it's painful, but then if you just kind of like not zone out and be nothing, just kind of sit there and just be having no intention sometimes is essentially probably what sleep is doing. There's obviously some other things going on there, but
00:05:58
Speaker
I feel like a lot of people know how important it is to not consume content, any mental food, whether you are what you eat. So if you watch a lot of murder shows, you're going to dream about murder stuff or have nightmares if you watch a lot of whatever.
Media as Avoidance & Self-Reflection
00:06:16
Speaker
So you are what you eat in terms of what you think about.
00:06:22
Speaker
So yeah, like it's really important. Like what do you do to like really to like just cut like, you know, you, you mentioned reading, but what else? So reading and sitting in silence, but not so much in silence. Like, uh, yeah, I go to church.
00:06:38
Speaker
on Sunday. So that would be where that's your time to reflect and just be silent and not speak. But the thing is, what I find personally is that at some point in my life, I may have been afraid to be alone with my own self. I don't know if that makes any sense, but I feel like
00:06:56
Speaker
A lot of people do have background background noise just so they're not alone with themselves and their thoughts.
Mental Peace vs. Modern Distractions
00:07:05
Speaker
Right. It's almost like a fear of themselves that they have to always be inundated by everything else except their own thoughts. Right. So they try to push themselves or put themselves in a little box and just surround themselves with this is just an assumption. I don't know if that's exactly how it is. Yeah, that makes sense.
00:07:23
Speaker
It's that whole becoming and being thing where you're like, you know, you're thinking about, um, or you're mentally responding to things and you get used to that as opposed to like taking the time to like really get deep down and like feel like, like essentially who you are as a human being and takes that time to- Self-reflection is such an asset and it's a skill people should develop, right?
00:07:48
Speaker
And it's it's amazing, man. It's incredible. When you self reflect, you can correct, you can self correct. And when you don't self correct is when, you know, things go go astray or things go awry, right? You need to you definitely need a self correct mechanism in your body. And I think silence is that mechanism.
00:08:09
Speaker
Yeah, there was one of my favorite books from Eckhart Tolle was Stillness Speaks, where he talks about how, you know, stillness is pretty loud in terms of what it offers humanity. But due to its uncaptivating pop up ad level of marketing, it's not very cool. You know, it's not it's not tick tock.
Benefits of Mental Stillness
00:08:31
Speaker
Like there wouldn't be an app called Silence and it does nothing. Right. That's not trendy.
00:08:35
Speaker
But yeah, there is this whole like, when you're, you know, in day to day life, you get emails, you get whatever, or when you're watching or binge watching stuff, you're, you know, consciously paying attention, your mind is responding to stimuli outside and you're it's going back and forth. Whereas that's kind of like a more like a mental back and forth, where
00:08:59
Speaker
what we're talking about is the opposite of that or the cleansing of not having over-consuming media is just this whole now, as in the present moment, when nothing is moving, nothing is
00:09:15
Speaker
you know, changing. There's no need to respond to any of that. It's just currently here now. It's like peaceful. And not only is it externally, but when you realize that calmness and peace is already and has already always been inside you, but you've just been kind of not ignoring it. You've just been so fixated on becoming and, you know, being and actioning and doing.
00:09:44
Speaker
then you kind of almost don't hear it or you don't tap into it. Yeah. But it's extremely refreshing and peaceful to like completely cut out mental
Alternative Activities & Self-Reflection
00:09:54
Speaker
stuff. Like even when you're driving, like do you ever, uh, you know, if you've had a long day and you're kind of tired, you ever like drive and like turn off everything and just like focus on the road or like, um, do you go for like nature walks or like what, what are some other kind of, you know, I guess letting go opportunities for people that are,
00:10:12
Speaker
you know, mentally drained from content. Yeah, I think just for sure reading would be one of them and going for walks. But as I pointed out, like self self-reflection, right. So driving, I remember I used to be such an well, not such an aggressive. I used to be a bit of an aggressive driver with some road rage. Everybody has a little bit of road rage in them. But when you can get home and sit and think about that for a moment,
00:10:39
Speaker
Why? Why would I do that? And just self-reflect and then, you know, self-correct that action. So next time you don't have to give somebody the finger. You don't have to throw your, your dirty diapers out the window. Somebody's, uh,
00:10:53
Speaker
somebody's hood, right? You can just not do that. Just go about your day and, you know, and be happy, right? There's no need to, uh, it's
Escapism & Emotional Needs of Binge-Watching
00:11:02
Speaker
one of those things, right? You see something wrong, you fix it, but, um, yeah, man, binge watching. You need to, I honestly feel that disconnecting is the key, man. Disconnecting on that note. I gotta go. See ya.
00:11:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's perfect. But that is partially true. Like what you did recently, I copied and it has been very fruitful. And maybe you can talk about what you did with phone notifications, all that stuff during like a nine to five level of regular schedule hours. Yeah, I leave my phone on my desk and I don't look at it until five, six, maybe seven o'clock.
00:11:43
Speaker
Yeah, I don't I don't have an urge to pick it up and look at it.
Physical Activity & Media Consumption
00:11:48
Speaker
Although I used to a lot every couple of minutes. I was looking at my phone. For some bizarre reason, I would just look at it. I wasn't even ringing or anything. No notifications. I just had to look through posts and stuff. Right. Right. But I feel like we're all in that predicament at this point in the timeline of humanity. We're all in that.
00:12:11
Speaker
We're all in together, man. The dopamine zombies where you're like, I'm picking this up. I don't know why I am, but yeah, I'm going to go through these apps because actually it's not even like that. It's like pick up, tap this, scroll to this, next one, tap this, scroll to this. And then when you get to the end of that, you kind of repeat the process, at least for me. And then at a certain point, your mindfulness kicks in and you're like,
00:12:40
Speaker
What are you doing? This this is insane. This is insane. And you put it down. And so apparently, you know, Andrew Huberman, this one is my favorite, I guess, you know, scientists or doctors that have a lot of great YouTube content works a lot with athletes and even skateboarders and all that stuff grew up in that kind of he's like a professor at Stanford, but he's like everywhere on
00:13:08
Speaker
YouTube these days. But he was talking about how, you know, once if you actually take, let's say, a one week break from binge social media or binge your favorite episode, let's say Lost, you didn't you binge the first two seasons. If you took like a one month off and then you then binged
Dopamine, Satisfaction, & Binge-Watching
00:13:31
Speaker
another season, that season three or that social media consumption at that point,
00:13:38
Speaker
feel so tremendously good because what we're trying to do when we pick it up as a zombie, according to the research and stuff like from him and his team and all of these studies is that you're trying to feel that same way you first felt when you had it and you're trying to get back to that, but you never can because you're
00:13:58
Speaker
like your dopamine levels are so, they have such a high baseline threshold, meaning that in order for you to reach that, you now have to have like even more amazing content. So the only way to reset that is like you said, to completely unplug and then you can come back to it and you know, in a couple of weeks and then it, they, the good news is they do reset and you can get back to it, but
00:14:23
Speaker
you know, people will probably have, you know, feelings of increased loneliness, depression, anxiety, all of this stuff. Like if they continue to binge consume,
Situational Binge-Watching
00:14:35
Speaker
right? Yeah. And the problem too is somebody's having emotional issues, right? It may help them to binge watch because I mean, you do create an emotional attachment to characters and TV shows.
00:14:49
Speaker
And in their cases where of course this can benefit you, right? I mean, if you're lonely and you have emotional for sure, you know, problems, there's an up and down side to all of this, right? Yeah. It's good to unplug. It's good to not binge, but you know, it's, it may not be all that bad, right?
Risks of Overconsumption
00:15:09
Speaker
You do need that, that, you know, that kind of something needs to fill that gap. So if you unplug, what are you going to do? Like,
00:15:17
Speaker
I'm not a big walking person, I don't love to go for walks. I do love to read. But what about people who don't love to read, nor go for walks, right? They need something. And ultimately, if like television or binge watching makes you happy. Yeah. By all means, right? For sure. I don't think at that point, it would be negative in the sense, you know, the way we're kind of portraying it as a negative outlet, I think it would be okay.
00:15:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's almost like you're saying situational based, everyone's situation is different and it could be your situation that your way of unplugging is binge watching and maybe you have like whatever situation you have and without those levels of binge watching or without those levels of consuming media, social or any kind of screen related content or anything, if that is
00:16:13
Speaker
basically what brings you tons of joy and happiness. It's not like we're saying to cut that out. We're just talking about, as a whole, if you over-consume anything, whether that's physical, like certain foods, negative foods, or
00:16:33
Speaker
or content, like, you know, before I think a lot of people were looking at food separate from, you know, screen content, right? Like what does,
Active vs. Passive Media Consumption
00:16:41
Speaker
what does a burger have to do with, you know, you know, watching baseball, right?
00:16:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's just too much of anything might not be a good thing. However, yeah, like if it's if it's going to be the difference of extreme unhappiness versus extreme happiness, for sure, you don't want to take away anything that is that is going to do that. Yeah, it's definitely situational. Yeah, yeah. So like, so, you know, every situation is different for everyone, you know, given their, you know,
00:17:15
Speaker
whatever they're going through in life as well. Like, you know, if, if, if I personally was working a job that I, you know, maybe I really didn't like, or I had something tragic that happened in my life, or there was like a history of like, mental dysfunction genetically or whatever, you know, everyone's situation could be completely different. And you kind of just have to take it with a grain of salt of, you know, our experience and what we're seeing in the industry. Yeah, I mean, in a perfect world, optimally,
00:17:45
Speaker
We want to all disconnect and just be out there, but yeah, the world is not a perfect place and never will be. So yeah, that's just how it is, right?
00:17:55
Speaker
Yeah, there's also the other thing of, okay, so let's say for the people that just, you know, love binge watching, you know, Netflix and all that stuff. And that is the main thing they look forward to when they get home. And so, you know, they get home from work. Let's say they had an office desk job and they don't work remotely or they do hybrid and they get home, they just binge for whatever.
00:18:20
Speaker
five or six hours and go to bed maybe a couple of days a week, other days, you know, sitting, watching other screens, you know, just increasing your, you know, physical activity on those days, whether like what I started doing personally is like, as you know, I have a treadmill underneath my desk.
Media Effects on Sleep & Daily Life
00:18:38
Speaker
And sometimes when I'm playing games or watching YouTube, I'll be on it. And I have like arm rests so I can, I'm literally like watching videos like how I shouldn't watch.
00:18:48
Speaker
YouTube on YouTube. And and I'm like, you know, sweating beads. So but I get off the treadmill and I'm like, I feel incredible. Yeah, compared to like if I was sitting and like, you know, posture and all that stuff is
00:19:04
Speaker
My wife sent me this great Instagram, you know, how you get audio for reals. But I'll just see if I can play this for you. And it's a kid that goes up to, I guess, his dad. And this is what he says, like, uncandedly. And my wife's like, you should use this for a skateboarding video, but let's see if I can play.
00:19:32
Speaker
You need to move around a lot. Why? Because sitting isn't even good for your heart. Sit around.
00:19:43
Speaker
So that's like the kid that's just wants to get his dad to come look for bugs with them and play. And sometimes, not sometimes, I feel like majority of the times the kids know more than we do. They kind of come, they kind of get plopped out and they're like, what's with all these people looking at these screens? You know, like they're smarter than us for many reasons, right?
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. It's pretty amazing, man. Yeah. It's, uh, I know my son will grab me sometimes and just try to not sometimes like all the time. Yeah. Try to kick me off my chair. He literally jumps on the back of my chair where there's a little gap and he starts to like push down with his legs. Ultimately he's just kicking my ass off the chair. Yeah. Yeah. Just.
00:20:27
Speaker
does that all the time. You know what? You should train him to do like something. Yeah. Like because a new version of the iPhone trumps the last one, they're just a better version of you, you know, because of evolution and all that. Um, so like you should just train them to do like Kung Fu and then like you'll just live stream like some YouTube thing where he comes and like tries to kick you out of your chair and you're like, Oh,
00:20:49
Speaker
I'm like doing these plots and stuff. It's like every couple hours, right? And then look, you get sweaty. He gets sweaty. You guys are happy. Then you can go back to like coding PHP. Yeah, man.
Suggestive Power of TV Shows
00:21:03
Speaker
So, uh, back to the, uh, back to the topic at hand. Do you think that binge watching television, keep calling it television. Does anybody even know what television means? You keep binge watching Netflix and stuff, right?
00:21:17
Speaker
Do you think it has the same effects as binge playing a video game? No, it doesn't. From the research that I've seen from people that have looked at the difference between video games and TV, and one of the reasons mainly is because one is active and one is passive. One gets a little bit more of a
00:21:42
Speaker
dopaminergic response when you press the trigger in halo to shoot like an alien versus when you're just watching. Watching is more passive like reading is, but reading's different because you're not seeing so much stimulus popping up to hold your attention, but you're also, it's active meaning you're imagining it, right? But that actual imagination process is quite
00:22:08
Speaker
Like, at least for me, it makes me very tired and it gets me like ready for for bed.
Kids' Media Consumption & Parental Controls
00:22:14
Speaker
But they do say that, you know, if you wanted to rank those three things like binging TV shows, video games and reading before bed,
00:22:25
Speaker
You know, if you do your research online, it will it will say that, you know, reading is obviously number one to do before bed. You could watch shows before bed. And then lastly, would be gaming before bed. But for sleep optimization, I've tried things where.
00:22:41
Speaker
I cut out all light, right? And I just listen to podcasts and that didn't seem to, just listening seemed to be just as stimulating as watching. So, you know, even if you cut out, so I would say like reading with like a little nightlight or something like that is really helpful right before bed.
00:23:04
Speaker
Um, yeah, I can tell you what doesn't work for, um, that is binge, binging, like nonstop exercise right up to the point when you go to bed because, um, you get a lot of energy from like exercise.
Setting Limits on Gaming for Children
00:23:21
Speaker
So, um,
00:23:24
Speaker
Yeah. I really don't have like any good, like examples of, Hey, I've cut out this type of binging and this is the, um, positive effect I've gotten on sleep, mental health, you know, mood, all that stuff. But what, I don't know. What about you like him? I mean, I mean, it could vary from person to person, but for me, definitely binge watching TV has a,
00:23:52
Speaker
has an effect on me at night in terms of sleeping. It doesn't, it just, for some reason, it just sits in my mind longer or I don't know, just kind of infests my mind more than a video game would. Yeah, video games are a lot more, I don't know what it is, man. I could play a game for hours and hours. I'm talking by hours, I mean like, you know, six to eight hours.
00:24:19
Speaker
If I do that with a TV show, I will definitely have that in my mind at night.
Pomodoro Technique & Burnout Prevention
00:24:26
Speaker
But with video games, it does not affect me in that way.
00:24:30
Speaker
Hmm. Interesting. I don't know what it is. Yeah. I'm the same way with video games, even though the like the studies show that, you know, it's the opposite. Like it's better for your sleep to do not play them. I feel like for me to get to the point that a video game binging is affecting my sleep, I've had it happen multiple times throughout my life. But it was when I was like, you know, playing it so much that it did it not only affected my sleep,
00:24:56
Speaker
to the point where I was tired when I woke up. It was affecting my daily life, meaning I would get into the car. And instead of backing out the car, I would be thinking, oh, before I do that, I have to move my troops from here to there. I have to select my troops to move them to here.
00:25:18
Speaker
like command and conquer this is like you know what you know what like i think it was 18 or something like that just like playing the heck out of that and i'm like but like no that has nothing to do with driving i was like that's crazy i'm like like it was it's almost like a part of your mind is is reserved for that game like and it's operating all day long um it could be you
Completion Compulsion & Leisure Activities
00:25:42
Speaker
know what i find tv's a lot more suggestive than video games
00:25:46
Speaker
There's a lot more targeted ideology. Targeted at the people, targeted speech, and then you have political statements. Everything's just a little more suggestive. Not a little more. I take that back. Everything is a lot more suggestive in TV.
00:26:10
Speaker
movies and television. Everything's more suggestive. And in video games, it's not the case, right? Like you play a game like World of Warcraft. It's an imaginary world where everybody's just running around doing their stuff, you know, doing quests and just raids and whatever. Nothing's really as suggestive. No political statements. There's no this. There's no that.
00:26:34
Speaker
It's a little more innocent, I have to say. That's probably why. And the amount of research that goes into this suggestive thinking or suggestive development in TV, they probably spend millions on market research on how to target the average male brain between this age and that age, or the average old person to get them to vote this way.
00:27:01
Speaker
the average, you know, Joe Blow to get them to buy our shaving cream, whatever. I'm just making a given an example, but games are not that suggestive. Yeah. That's I guess we're lucky that they're not because maybe we're so lucky because, you know, they're not as widespread as TV because anyone can sit in front of, you know, and I
Work vs. Leisure Binge Mentality
00:27:25
Speaker
hope it doesn't. I almost.
00:27:27
Speaker
I almost hope it doesn't get any more popular than it does because then it would just become this. Well, actually, it kind of did when like iPhones came out. And like I was saying that other story about how the friend of mine's like, yeah, I'm a gamer now. I play Candy Crush. And I'm like, OK, you're just you just you just like casinos or whatever it is because those games were like that. It didn't really kill the gaming industry. It like it just kind of like shook it a bit. And then people realize, no, no, no, that's not what we want.
00:27:54
Speaker
And to this day, like my wife and I won't buy the kids like or download the kids free iPad games. The iPads are like strictly like they're locked with the code. They're strictly for school educational purposes. If they want to play a game, we buy it. We plop down the 79 or whatever. We don't like, oh, it's a free to play game and you just got to keep on pumping in money like a casino. None of that stuff. That is extremely
00:28:20
Speaker
toxic from a mental health perspective for these kids because they're made to be super addictive instead of just fun and wholesome, like a Nintendo game or whatever. That's right. Absolutely, man. Games. Yeah, games. Honestly, I'd prefer kids playing a nice wholesome Nintendo Switch game.
00:28:43
Speaker
instead of sitting and watching YouTube for like hours, right? And being inundated with stuff. They're not really supposed to see like, no, no, it's not, it's not really for me. And yeah, here we, we, I let my son play, you know, super Mario when he's, when he's good. I mean, he's good all the time, but, uh,
Detaching from Phone Distractions
00:29:03
Speaker
you know, when, when he, when his reward time, yeah, super Mario or switch would be our go-to reward. Right.
00:29:12
Speaker
Like that's how it is. Do you set limits on any of that stuff for not necessarily for your kiddos, but like for yourself, your family, like, do you ever like out of nowhere? Hey, it's been 30 minutes. Let's just take a break. Um, cause binge watching has this risk of, Oh my gosh, it's 12 o'clock at night. Where did we just got home? You know,
00:29:37
Speaker
Yeah, no, I do it for my kids. I don't obviously do it for my wife because, you know, that would be your happily married man. Right. Exactly. But no, I do it. Of course, I do it for my kids. I set limits. I'll set like a 30 minute limit for a switch for playing Mario. And that's it. That's at most like an hour. That's that's the most he'll do in one sitting.
00:30:02
Speaker
We'll take a break, do some coloring, some drawing activities and some spelling and all that good stuff. What about for coding? Have you heard of like Pomodoro or I think it's like Italian for tomato. Have you heard of that? No, that's a kids coding platform, right? It could be, but I think it has something to do with
00:30:26
Speaker
Basically every, I don't know, 45 minutes or something, you like take five minutes to do something.
00:30:34
Speaker
Get up make a coffee get up Do some push-ups get up, you know Like do a backflip and scream whatever the craziness is sounds like a mental torture Yeah, you know person that's what they would do to
Reducing Phone Dependency & Satisfaction
00:30:48
Speaker
you right now. You know wait for five minutes now get up like water torture Yeah, where they keep on dripping on you. I like the idea of getting randomly dripped on but not in this context But listen, um, I'm you know
00:31:03
Speaker
a little off the rails sometimes. So that's me. Windows 11 added this thing in the bottom right hand corner called focus. So maybe you could click your clock. That's what she said. And then click your clock and then do you see focus?
00:31:23
Speaker
Yeah. OK, so if you click it, right, yeah, it will set this thing and it will. It's essentially the Pomodoro thing, so they kind of baked in this stuff into Windows. So that's how much this it's very effective, you know, because you could get lost like right now, 30 minutes of 60 minutes, 90 minutes of coding, of googling, of tubing, of whatever.
00:31:51
Speaker
And they have it on Xbox too, obviously Microsoft, Windows, they're in, you know, same company. And then you just have to decide what your focus period is, what you're going to do.
Producing vs. Consuming Media
00:32:03
Speaker
And, you know, but essentially you should, for the most part, if you do them correctly, you should not be doing what you are doing. And probably the most benefit would be to do something
00:32:17
Speaker
you know, athletic, you know, get up and walk around, get the mail, you know, yes, it's cold out in certain parts, but you know, if you expose yourself to a lot of cold, you can increase your, what is called brown fat, which is the better part of the fat that's on your body that keeps you warmer, right? So exposing yourself to cold is good sometimes, even though it sucks when you feel it.
00:32:39
Speaker
But yeah, like what's your cadence for like, is it like, oh, coffee cup is empty. I'm going to get up, go downstairs. Like what do you kind of do to break it up? Sometimes not even that. I break it up by completing tasks that I need to complete. So if I have a task at work, it's actually not because I was sitting at my desk for like eight hours because that task I had to complete something and I get obsessed with it. So.
00:33:05
Speaker
I don't get up until that task is complete. So I just. Yeah, so that would be like at the eight hour mark in that case, that would be my.
00:33:14
Speaker
thing. And then I'd go and go get a coffee or whatever. It's not good, man. Not right. So that's, that's like the, uh, a lot of people go through exact, I go through that too, you know, and you know what, just talking about this now with the, um, binging something until it's done.
Trying New Habits for Happiness
00:33:29
Speaker
Okay. If we just forget the, uh, the media, like I'm going to sit here or stand here until it is complete, right? We're completionist level of whatever. Um,
00:33:41
Speaker
And then probably when you're doing that task, it doesn't have to be programming. But let's say you make a little bit of a breakthrough, 30% complete. Instead of taking that opportunity for a break, what do you do?
00:33:55
Speaker
You probably continue, right? Instead of saying, okay, I reached a good enough point where I can take a break. You're like, no, man, I'm going to power through even more. And that's like that tunnel vision level of greed that you're like.
00:34:12
Speaker
I needed, I needed, I want it. And you can't get out of it. So in skateboarding, we call it a skate greed, where you're trying to get a new trick, right? And you almost got it first try. It's like the trial membership for
Cultural Approaches to Happiness
00:34:30
Speaker
whatever. You're like, oh, the trial membership ended. And dudes will spend an hour, two hours trying that same one over and over again.
00:34:37
Speaker
And if you ask a lot of them, they're not having fun during that process. It is mentally, physically draining and it hurts because they want, they want to get, they're seeking that, right? So maybe binging is seeking completion of a series, seeking completion of
00:34:58
Speaker
Hey, I want to know what happens at the end of season of lost, right? I want to, like, I want to know what's next. I need to come. I need more, right? It's like the whole thing of more, right? You're not satisfied with, you know, what? Yeah, but the thing is, yeah, like at the workplace, it's a little bit, little bit different, right? You're, you know, it's the pressure's a bit different as opposed to, uh, you know, being alone and, and ginging, right? Cause the workplace, you have, uh, tasks and you have work to do and you have to produce.
Encouraging Reduced Media Binging
00:35:28
Speaker
Yeah. And you're getting paid to do, uh, to accomplish things. Right. So the mentality is a bit different. You put on a different hat during that time. It's more stressful. It's a lot more stressful, right? Yeah. But, um, yeah, when, when you, like, when I close my laptop, that's it, man. I change. I'm completely different. Yeah. For sure. So like that Bruce Wayne Batman thing, 100% dude, 100% Bruce Wayne and Batman.
00:35:57
Speaker
so the phone social media content binging thing like or like binging like um one of the things like i was like you know when you pick it up like and then you go through all these different platforms and you check notifications whatever um i've started reducing that completely and
00:36:17
Speaker
I copied what you were doing where I have it on, do not disturb, only calls. And I even implemented, this is the thing I'm most proud of. At the end of the day, I will put it on a charger. I have a nice charger here in the basement. And my excuse is, oh, it's on the charger. But I'm able to spend the rest of the night without it. I don't bring it to the bedroom. It's in the basement.
00:36:38
Speaker
Um, and I'm really happy. Like I'm like, Oh, I don't have my phone. Like, uh, I forget about it. It feels good. It feels like, I feels like I can accomplish much more either around the house or in my life without it in my pocket. Absolutely. I know that sounds weird. Just the fact that something's in your pocket, like you're going to vacuum the house more or you're going to go for a walk more or go drive. It's not, it's not a phone. It's an anchor. That's what it is. That's what it is. It's a giant anchor.
Teaser for Next Episode & Reflection
00:37:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's just kidding. Maybe that's why they call it like, like, um, I was going to say entrepreneurships or like, uh, company or partnerships. They're all ships because they're like anchors weighing down, but I didn't know that they, you know, what for a quarter. It literally is. It's like an anchor, right? This thing just weighs you down. Like you said, man, leave it in the basement. You just feel so light. Yeah. Like there's like something, nothing. So where that one movie where that, that one guy at the end,
00:37:38
Speaker
lady sitting on his shoulder. He's like hunched over in jail. There's this one lady sitting on the shoulder because he had killed her and her ghost on his shoulder. Do you remember that? I was like, it's like, it's like, it's like a Japanese horror movie. I think it was called like, I wasn't the ring. I think it was called photograph or was something about this guy who takes pictures. And in every picture he sees this dead Japanese girl that he, oh wow, that he killed. I was going to say one or photo, but no, that's not it.
00:38:06
Speaker
Wait, maybe that's what it is. Wait. No, no, no. Let me check. That's Robin Williams. That's not it. No, I think you got to watch this movie, man. It's it reminded me of Fatal Frame. Ah, yes. Yeah. So that it was spooky. But like in the end of that movie, the weight on that guy's shoulders was that woman's ghost.
00:38:32
Speaker
And for us, it's these phones, man. Yeah. Yeah. This is our ghost. This is our dead woman in our shoulders. Yeah. Yeah. This is basically why don't, why don't you, no, no, no. It's if you think about it for people that, you know,
00:38:47
Speaker
are listening that have like gotten to this point in the pod, you know, probably like the main takeaway is that, hey, if you're struggling with certain things, right, what has worked for Rui and I is just limiting
00:39:04
Speaker
binging of content, especially through the phones, like leaving them somewhere. I really have not felt like this thing has brought me joy in many, many years. Like it is very amazing. Like just me picking it up right now, it felt good. But it is like a smoke and mirrors. It is like an ex-girlfriend or you know what I mean? It is not good. It is like the worst. The only time it brings me joy is when when my wife calls me.
00:39:33
Speaker
Yes. Fair enough. Just to say that she loves me. And then obviously that brings me a ton of joy. But yeah, I can get that from a flip phone. I don't need this. Yep. That's it, man. Tomorrow. Anyways, the name of that movie is called Shutter. Shutter. Yes, I remember that. Yeah. So like just wrapping it up here for, you know, people
00:39:57
Speaker
again, that are listening. So all in all, what would you say of making these small, minor modifications on reduction of binging content? What kind of a positive impact in your life has that made since you started many of these minor adjustments?
00:40:22
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I can easily tell you that since I started not being so connected and not binging on media, I've been able to write a children's book. I've been able to read every single day. For at least a couple of hours, I've been able to write papers on historical events in the past. And I've been able to take myself to the next level. I've leveled up, man.
00:40:51
Speaker
That's how you level up. So your red mage is now like a red knight. No, I'm like, uh, what do you call it when you mix the red and black in final fantasy? There's like a red mage, black mage, white mage and black mage.
00:41:07
Speaker
a red mage, but are you talking about blue mage? Oh, do you know what blue mage is, dude? It sucks the soul of other people's talents and abilities and uses it against them. That is like, yeah, it's like, I'm going to become a car. Yeah, it's like the Tesla, you can change the horn to like La Cucaracha.
00:41:30
Speaker
It's just like, you know, it got me thinking about that. I got to turn that off. It's quite kids say it's embarrassing. Yeah, no. So that's what I've been able to do. Just you can do a lot more unplug and you can do so much more in your life.
00:41:46
Speaker
have no idea man you could just do so much how about you what's your uh so since i started copying like what you were doing and also leaving it it you know at night i i was making a lot of progress and then i started uh substituting the phone with other screens and i caught on to that i was like oh my god i've
00:42:08
Speaker
Literally, I was like, yeah, I don't have my phone. I'm so proud of it. But I've been watching YouTube for the past two hours. I'm like, no, I just substituted. And once I realized that and cut that out a little bit and went into rooms and got bored, I was like, oh, well, you know what? I'm going to hang up that shelf where I'm going to do more around the house. I'm going to whatever it is. And
00:42:28
Speaker
And then I was like, well, if I'm going to do these projects around the house, I might as well like, you know, film a YouTube video for each of them. And so since I've been implementing like what you've done, like this is going back like when I heard it like three weeks ago. So first time in my entire life where I'm able to Monday through Friday have every single day a new YouTube video coming out. Nice. And I've been wanting to do that for so many years. And it's the first time ever. So
00:42:56
Speaker
And I feel better. I'm sleeping at her and I'm generally more happy and not so like distracted. But for me, it was like life changing. Yeah. So I mean, you could boil it down to you either consume or produce and less consumption equals more production. Right. And you're able to produce more with that. The less consumption is perfect, man. Yes. And I feel like yes. And if.
00:43:25
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say that a lot of people should get on board with it.
00:43:29
Speaker
Yes, sorry, I interrupted. Yeah, a lot of people should get on board with that. And sorry, I was just so excited I couldn't stop myself. No worries, man. It's like you're almost like producing more happiness as well, right? Yes. Instead of consuming, I guess, other people or, you know, whatever. I don't, I really feel like on the producing side, you will produce more happiness versus on the consumption side, just naturally, you know? Yeah. But yeah, so it's a product.
00:43:57
Speaker
ask yourself, um, what is your percent to consumption, uh, to production, right? Not, not work, forget work. Everyone has to work factor that out just in your personal life. Like what are, you know, and if it's 90, 10, what would it, what would it look like to switch that to 80, 20? Just minor things, you know? Yeah, that's a great point. Don't eliminate, but limit, right? Yeah.
00:44:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's like everything in small doses where maybe you didn't have to have whatever it was. Maybe you could have reduced by a third of whatever. As soon as you're conscious of it, you can make a change and you don't have to change for
00:44:44
Speaker
ever for the whatever but if you change as like almost like get curious about it hey if make the small change let's see what that affects and then you're like you do that you're like well that didn't do anything because so don't do it you know if you're happier before but if you made a change and you're like
00:45:01
Speaker
Like, but at the end of the day, don't make a change thinking that like, Oh, I should make this change because it's the right thing to do. Like at the end of the day, like let's say that this is the only life we get, right? You probably want to do whatever you have to do to be happy. Right. So, um, but if there's a chance for you to explore and get curious about, is there a way to increase your happiness, then, you know, does it hurt to try once in a while to see if that is beneficial? Um, you know, it doesn't hurt at all, man. I think it's great.
00:45:30
Speaker
And each of us has the opportunity to be happy and create and produce. Each and every one of us has that opportunity. We just have to take it. And for that, you have to reduce your consumption just completely. I would say eliminate it, but it all depends on the circumstance. But definitely a reduction is a good start.
00:45:52
Speaker
I heard this interesting thing about not North America or Western Hemisphere, but they asked a bunch of different other countries, Asia, Middle Eastern of if you're depressed, what would you do in these non-North America countries? And there was a study that was done that showed a lot of them start sociologically doing nice things for other people.
00:46:22
Speaker
A lot of people found that that created incredible happiness for themselves. And it was an interesting study because they found that not a lot of like on the percent wise of North Americans versus the rest of the world don't prioritize that as a way to generate happiness for themselves. And that was kind of eye opening for so like, you know,
00:46:47
Speaker
It's kind of interesting. I feel like I try tons of different ways to be a better human friend for parent, husband, all that stuff, everyone around me. But I've never experimented or thought of like, hey, let's just spend an extra two hours every day and just really focus on what I can bring to everyone like I love and care about, right? As a sociological experiment, personally, and maybe that would
00:47:15
Speaker
maybe I could report back to our listeners of like, hey, this is what it did for me. And I like that idea because it is probably very difficult to do when you're always focused on going to work, what you have to do, you get to go get groceries, all the stuff you have to do. But yeah, I wonder if that would be good. It was just kind of interesting.
00:47:40
Speaker
a way that the other parts of the world generate mental happiness. And I think that's part of this whole thing is we're all kind of disconnected from one another and a lot of Western societies like that, right? And which is kind of sad.
00:47:55
Speaker
Ultimately, we're all the same and we all come from the same pool. That's why when we do something for one another, it's an automatic response to be happy because that is just the way it's our design. That's how you know we're all connected. When you help somebody and they're happy, you feel something. It's an automatic response. But for those that don't, it's tough, man. They've been just disconnected from their fellow
00:48:24
Speaker
fellow humans. It's quite sad, to be quite honest. So next episode we should live stream the creation of the mobile app called God Points, where you basically just list everything that you did nice for anyone where people can give you and grant you God Points, but you can't spend them. You can only accumulate them.
00:48:45
Speaker
and they're not visible as a way of showing off at all. It's only all internal, but you know how much you have and you're happy about that, or maybe you're not, maybe you're more ambitious, but you would add an item, helped lady across the road, and then the app would be like two God points granted. You can't spend them. It's just a way of focusing and prioritizing generating GP.
00:49:13
Speaker
For sure. Dude, check this out, man. And they can't show anybody, so you have the camera on the phone. Once it's easy, it's not their face. The screen goes dark. It's like, wait a minute. It's like facial recognition. God points. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's like, God. Somebody's already developed this.
00:49:33
Speaker
So remember last time we were like, no, last time we were talking about somebody's going to develop this, this app or something. Yeah. Yeah. Then they need to, you know, we have like terms and conditions. If you look in the pod, if any apps or resemblance of likeness of applications developed from ideas and intellectual property from
00:49:54
Speaker
set up like it's like all these legal like loopholes like oh yeah so we made our millions by just like talking about these app ideas and people went and did it right and those like they thought we were joking because we were like laughing but yeah full disclosure but disclosure yeah man yeah it's good yeah go ahead man
00:50:13
Speaker
Yeah, I just want to say thank you, Rui. Thank you everyone that is listening. I think everyone out there cares a lot about happiness, friends, love, kindness, respect, having fun, and just being healthy. And these are just some tips that worked for Rui and I personally. And yeah, I just wanted to thank everyone. And we'll see you next time, Rui.
00:50:41
Speaker
Yeah. See you next time. And for those listening to this podcast, once it's done, just turn off your phone and go for a walk. See you later. Thanks everyone.