# I binge watch a TV show, then remember pretty much nothing about it. Is that common **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [June 23, 2021, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872 "2021-06-23T02:33:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/1 "2021-06-23T02:33:14Z")
I haven’t binge watched a new series recently, but several years ago I’d binge watch a TV show by doing about 3-4 episodes a day, until I finished the series in a month or so. Then I’d pretty much forget everything I just watched not long after. Then even if seeing an episode I know I’d already seen once I didn’t remember it. It was like watching it new all over again. Is this just a concentration thing (I would normally be screwing around online and have the show in the background), or what exactly? Do other people have this experience? If an episode of the simpsons comes on, I remember the plot to pretty much every episode. But not TV shows I binge watched as an adult. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/2 "2021-06-23T02:49:26Z")
Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty common. In the olden days of episodic, appointment tv, you’d watch an episode of a show, then your mind would have a chance to file away and digest what you just saw. If it was a “water cooler” show you’d talk about it with friends & co-workers. Then you’d look forward to the next episode the following week. When it started you’d get a “previously on…” recap to remind you where you were at. Now we blast our brains with raging torrents of content all at once, like filling up a teacup with a firehouse. Is it any wonder when we binge watch our brain fails to record it all? ---
**Author:** ![sweepkick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@sweepkick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweepkick)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/3 "2021-06-23T03:24:40Z")
I’m just here to say that I’m glad it isn’t just me. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/4 "2021-06-23T03:26:23Z")
Ok good I was worried I was losing my memory ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/5 "2021-06-23T04:14:38Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Is this just a concentration thing (I would normally be screwing around online and have the show in the background) I suspect this has a lot to do with it, probably more than how many episodes you watch at a time. People are worse at multitasking, or giving more than one thing at a time their attention, than they think they are. If you want to remember things, you have to think about them, which is something you do automatically if you’re paying attention (e.g. by trying to anticipate what will happen next, or by remembering how what happened earlier led up to what is happening now). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/6 "2021-06-23T06:26:20Z")
Right. Watching a show all at once (or over a few days) is a totally different experience than watching it slowly over months or years. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/7 "2021-06-23T07:16:36Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Watching a show all at once (or over a few days) is a totally different experience than watching it slowly over months or years. I wonder if any of the 24 Club OGs are still around to comment on that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/8 "2021-06-23T07:22:23Z")
I have a similar problem - while I do remember almost everything that happened, I can have a hard time recalling the exact order of events. While watching a certain episode or plot arc, I’ll remember what happens next, but I often won’t remember what the next episode or plot arc is, and when I look back at the entire series I have to do serious mental weightlifting to get the whole thing organized in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/9 "2021-06-23T08:23:15Z")
I watched quite a few episodes of _The Walking Dead_. All I can tell you is that zombies bite people. Well, some stuff about some Neegan guy with a barbed-wire bat, and some people entering and leaving communities, but that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/10 "2021-06-23T13:30:31Z")
I think this sort of memory definitely declines as you age. It’s not just movies and TV for me - books, for example - I could forget where I was in a book and end up re-reading a few pages before I remembered that I had already read that part, something that I wouldn’t have experienced when I was younger. But I think the binge watching effect also adds to this effect, decreasing how much you remember. **solost** covered it by saying, essentially, that your mind has time to digest something that you watch more slowly. You’ll think about what had happened more, make more connections as a viewer, anticipate what might happen in the future, maybe talk to someone else about it - that very much impacts how much memory related to the material you encode. Imagine watching something like Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones at a pace of 4 or 5 episodes per day. Those of us who watched it live, week after week, and year after year, spent a lot of time thinking about it, discussing it, speculating, re-watching it, anticipating - that, I think, is a big part of the ultimate enjoyment of series like that. If I had taken either show and finished the whole things in a month I would not have enjoyed them nearly as much, got much less mental milage out of enjoying them. I actually think that binge watching is a bad idea, it hurts your enjoyment of the media, you enjoy it more when you spread it out. I’m not saying you have to follow the release schedule and wait years, but if you really enjoy something, slow down and don’t be in such a rush to finish it. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/11 "2021-06-23T13:34:54Z")
I think my memory of TV shows I have binged is about as hazy as my memory of TV shows I have not binged. (I.e., pretty hazy.) I can’t think of any show that I’ve watched week-to-week where I have very good recollection of which individual episodes happened in which order. Then again, I’m not the type of person who really enjoys discussing TV shows at the “water cooler” at the best of times. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/12 "2021-06-23T14:22:37Z")
I never binge-watch anything. But I totally do this: > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Is this just a concentration thing (I would normally be screwing around online and have the show in the background), or what exactly? Do other people have this experience? Often I’m Doping or wiki-ing or … while “watching” a baseball or football game. Sometimes I will forget which teams are playing and be surprised when I look up from my tablet. I usually have no idea what the score is and frequently miss scoring plays despite the increased crowd noise, exultant announcing, replays, and all the rest of the hoopla that accompany a score. That’s not a memory problem. That’s mistaking "It’s displayed on the TV my body is facing " for “I’m watching that show on that TV.” Hell, the evidence shows I’m neither watching nor listening. Multi-tasking is a lie we tell ourselves to feel better about our pitiful modern attention spans and intolerance for boredom beyond a couple of _seconds_. Try putting down the tablet and actually _watch_ the show, giving it your undivided attention start to finish. You’ll be amazed at what you can remember. I predict you’ll also be amazed and consternated at how damn difficult _undivided attention start to finish_ really is. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/13 "2021-06-23T14:33:32Z")
I think a middle ground of one episode per day for a 45 minute show / two per day for a 22-23 minute show, might be most conducive to remembering what happened. Assuming, as others have mentioned, one is paying attention and not just running the TV in the background. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/14 "2021-06-23T14:42:31Z")
And discussing the show with others between episodes is probably going to have a fairly strong impact on what you remember. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/15 "2021-06-23T16:23:37Z")
This certainly is an interesting phenomenon. I know “The Big Bang Theory” episodes very well, because I watched them as they aired, and would then discuss them with friends, and also people here on the SDMB. On the other hand, I have mostly binge-watched “Young Sheldon”, and do not remember specifics about the episodes very well at all. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/16 "2021-06-23T16:27:10Z")
The Marvel shows coming out on Disney are a good example. I watch them, then I come over here and spend the next week talking about them, speculating about what is happening next, what’s going on with the characters and so on. I probably remember more out of the 2 episodes that I’ve seen than I remember from all of Game of Thrones. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/17 "2021-06-23T16:57:11Z")
It’s because there is no need to remember it for a week until the next episode. And because binged shows are watched out of sync with other fans, there is less chatting and recalling what happened. What you saw in episode 1 is literally OBE before you even go to bed that night, because you also watch episodes 2-4. All of that interferes with how we lay down long-term memory. The shows are staying in short-term memory and then being dropped because there is no need of recall. IME there is almost universal anecdotal agreement that moving things from short to long-term memory becomes harder as one ages. I’m sure I have experienced it myself. But I’ve never seen a study which gives a clear picture of how much of this is normal and how much would indicate a problem. [https://courses.lumenlearning.com/waymaker-collegesuccess/chapter/text-short-and-long-term-memory/](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/waymaker-collegesuccess/chapter/text-short-and-long-term-memory/) ---
**Author:** ![Mrs\_Fairway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Mrs\_Fairway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs_Fairway)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/18 "2021-06-23T17:17:42Z")
The shows that I binge-watch get my full attention, and I still don’t retain it. For example, when the 2nd season of Stranger Things came out, I had to re-watch season 1. When season 3 came out, I had to re-watch season 1 and season 2. I concentrate fully on a book I’m reading, but I don’t retain it. I can re-read it the following year and remember very little about it. I’m not sure my memory was any better in the past than it is now. I don’t remember if it was. Whoa. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/19 "2021-06-24T03:42:14Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Do other people have this experience? I do too, but I figured it was an ADHD thing. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872/20 "2021-06-24T04:28:34Z")
> [@Mrs\_Fairway](#): > > The shows that I binge-watch get my full attention, and I still don’t retain it. For example, when the 2nd season of Stranger Things came out, I had to re-watch season 1. When season 3 came out, I had to re-watch season 1 and season 2. > > I concentrate fully on a book I’m reading, but I don’t retain it. I can re-read it the following year and remember very little about it. > > I’m not sure my memory was any better in the past than it is now. I don’t remember if it was. Whoa. This has also been my experience reading a book. I have to concentrate to read it, but I can pick it up a year later and its like reading a new book all over again. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-binge-watch-a-tv-show-then-remember-pretty-much-nothing-about-it-is-that-common/944872.md?page=2)