You’ve finally got an evening to yourself. You open Netflix, scroll through the latest releases, read a few descriptions and watch a couple of trailers. Half an hour later, you still haven’t chosen anything.
So you pick up your phone for a minute. Two hours later, you’re watching a man attempt to renovate a house he bought at auction, and you’re surprisingly invested in whether the kitchen ceiling is going to collapse.
It’s a familiar feature of modern entertainment. We have more films, television programmes and music available than ever before, yet some of the things that hold our attention aren’t things we would ever have thought to look for.
When Choosing Becomes Harder Than Watching
Streaming services offer enormous libraries, but having more choice doesn’t always make choosing easier.
A film requires a decision. You have to consider whether you’re in the mood for a comedy, a thriller or something more serious. You might check the running time, read a review or ask somebody else what they think.
Opening YouTube or scrolling through social media involves much less commitment. You can watch something for thirty seconds, move on if it doesn’t interest you and continue until something catches your attention.
The result is that people sometimes spend more time watching things they discovered by accident than the programmes they deliberately sat down to enjoy.
When Did Ordinary People Become Entertainment?
A surprising amount of online entertainment involves watching people do perfectly ordinary things.
There are channels devoted to cleaning houses, organising cupboards, restoring old furniture and preparing meals. Gaming streamers attract viewers who have no intention of playing the games themselves, while people film lengthy tours of supermarkets in countries their audiences may never visit.
Some of this content is interesting because it offers a glimpse into somebody else’s everyday life. Some is relaxing, some is informative, and some is entertaining simply because the person making it has an engaging personality.
Traditional television occasionally explored similar territory, but online platforms have made it possible for almost anyone to find an audience.
You no longer need a television producer to decide that your hobby, routine or particular way of doing something deserves a programme.
The Things We Watch Because We Can’t Look Away
Not everything we watch is something we particularly admire.
A disastrous cooking attempt can be more entertaining than a successful one. Somebody attempting an ambitious DIY project without the necessary skills can attract viewers who are fairly certain they know how it will end.
Reality television has understood this for years. Awkward conversations, minor disagreements and questionable decisions often make better viewing than people behaving sensibly.
Online, the possibilities are almost endless. You might find yourself watching an argument about a restaurant review, somebody investigating an obviously suspicious property listing or a video explaining a minor celebrity disagreement you’ve never previously heard about.
None of these activities necessarily sounds appealing when described afterwards. Yet they can be difficult to stop watching once you’ve become curious about the outcome.
What We Watch Alone Is Often Different
There’s also a difference between entertainment we share with other people and entertainment we choose for ourselves.
When watching television with a partner, family or friends, there’s usually some negotiation involved. Everyone has to agree on a programme, or at least tolerate the choice.
On your own, those considerations disappear. You can watch three hours of retro gaming, follow an obscure livestream or return to the same comedy series without explaining why.
Online entertainment has made these individual preferences easier to satisfy. Alongside mainstream streaming services, there are specialist communities, individual creators and platforms catering to interests that don’t necessarily come up in everyday conversation.
That includes private forms of entertainment. Some people follow particular livestream performers, while others use adult platforms such as Babestation, whose live cams offer a range of performers and interactive shows. It’s another example of how personal viewing choices can differ from the entertainment people discuss publicly.
The important distinction isn’t whether an interest is unusual. It’s that people can choose something specifically suited to them without having to persuade anyone else to enjoy it.
Your Recommendations Know a Different Version of You
Ask somebody what they enjoy watching and they’ll probably mention a few favourite programmes, films or creators.
Their recommendations feed might tell a rather different story.
Perhaps they consider themselves a fan of serious documentaries, but their phone keeps suggesting celebrity interviews, abandoned shopping centres and videos of people falling off paddleboards.
Recommendation systems respond to behaviour. Watching a video to the end, repeatedly returning to a creator or searching for a particular subject can influence what appears next.
One passing curiosity can become a recurring feature of your feed. You watch a video about an unusual building, and suddenly you’re being introduced to increasingly obscure examples of architecture.
This can be useful when it helps people discover something genuinely interesting. It can also mean that an activity which began as a quick distraction continues considerably longer than intended.
And while recommendations can feel strangely accurate, they don’t necessarily reflect what somebody values most. Sometimes a person watches something because they’re fascinated. Sometimes they’re bored. Sometimes they simply want to see how badly things turn out.
Entertainment Doesn’t Always Begin With a Plan
The distinction between choosing entertainment and stumbling into it has become increasingly blurred.
People still arrange evenings around films, television programmes, concerts and sporting events. But they also spend time following unexpected interests, watching strangers and exploring subjects they might never mention when asked what they’ve been enjoying lately.
There’s nothing particularly mysterious about it. Curiosity is a powerful reason to keep watching, especially when the next video is already waiting.
So when somebody asks what you’ve been watching recently, you might tell them about the excellent drama you’ve just finished.
You probably won’t mention the ninety minutes you spent watching a man try to get a sofa through a doorway.
Although, depending on how it ended, that might have been the better programme.
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