Earlier this month, a report highlighted a ghastly trend among Indian viewers. The report suggested that on an average, viewers in India spend eight hours 29 minutes watching online video content, which is far more than the global trend of six hours and 45 minutes. And now a mental health clinic has registered its first case of Netflix addiction in India.
Last week the Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans) in Bengaluru received its first case of Netflix addiction in the country, which involves a 26-year-old unemployed man who turned to the video streaming platform to escape from reality for over six months.
According to a report by The Hindu, the man started by spending over seven hours a day watching shows on Netflix. Manoj Kumar Sharma, professor of clinical psychology at SHUT, told the publication that the man turned to Netflix to watch shows whenever he felt pressurised by his family over his unemployment or when he saw his friends doing well in life. Watching shows on the video streaming platform reportedly helped him to forget his problems and gave him pleasure.
What started as a habit gradually turned into an addiction as he realised that he couldn't stop binge watching shows on the platform, which affected his health severely. His addiction to the platform ultimately led to disturbed sleeping patterns, eye strain and fatigue.
The doctors at SHUT are now helping him overcome his obsessive habit by prescribing relaxing exercises and career counseling him.
Notably, smartphones and improved connectivity in India have led to an increased number of young people turning to video streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hotstar and YouTube to watch their favourite shows. This in turn led to the streaming services upping their game in the country by widening their reach, improving their services and offering more diversified content to lure more users. This in turn has triggered a streak of addiction among the young users who spend long hours on these platforms, sometimes even to escape the psychological stress in real life.
In effect, this addiction is similar to gaming addiction, which was declared a mental health disorder by the World Health Organisation earlier this year.
As far as the man is concerned, he will be able to return to Netflix in due course of time. "In due course of time, he can enjoy Netflix but also be productive in other domains," Sharma said in a statement to Quartz India.