This smart pick by Theresia Enzensberger made me think of how I consume pop culture. Theresia concludes with the observation, that people apparently like to binge on pop culture, referencing House of Cards and the new Beyoncé album.
I think, in that sense I might be a binger. I tend to consume pop culture in bulks, obsessively trying to quench my thirst for whatever caught my attention. When I found out about House of Cards, I watched it within three days (Yes, it’s coming again). When I first read David Sedaris, I had to read everything of and about him. After I accidentally met Marjane Satrapi at a small film festival in Serbia, I had to watch everything she made – immediately.
Call it compulsive. But don’t call it binging.
The term to binge comes from psychological classification, referring to drinking or eating disorders. It basically means: heavy episodic consuming over a short period of time. Which suits perfectly with my behavior. Except: I want it that way. I love to immerse into a thought, a world, a narrative, a feeling. It was that way when I was a child, learning about the magic of stories by reading all night under my bedcover. It is that way now. I don’t see it as a disorder but as a way to live. And it does by no means diminish the value of the art I consume, nor the effect it has on me. In contrary.
So maybe it’s time for a new word for this phenomenon. A word that does not implicate, losing control over consumption is a disorder. Any suggestions?