It happens almost every single night. I finally finish up my classes, submit whatever assignment is due by midnight, and collapse onto my bed.
This is it—my sacred, hard-earned free time. I pick up my phone or grab the laptop and open Netflix, YouTube, or whatever streaming app I can get a shared password for.
And then, I scroll.
I scroll through rows of trending shows, movies everyone on social media is talking about, and anime series I’ve been meaning to start. Half an hour later, my dinner is cold, my eyes are heavy, and I still haven’t picked anything. Usually, I end up putting on an old Harry Potter movie I’ve already seen ten times, pulling out my phone, and scrolling through Reels until I fall asleep.
If you do exactly this, you aren't alone. We are living in a time where we have access to every piece of music, video, and show ever made, yet somehow, we’ve never been more overwhelmed by it.
If you talk to your parents, or even if you just barely remember the early 2000s yourself, entertainment used to look completely different in India. Having a colour TV at home wasn’t a given back then—it was a luxury. We certainly didn't have one. So, when the weekend rolled around, my absolute favourite thing was going over to my chacha's house.
The entire living room would be packed to the gills. Cousins, aunts, uncles—everyone squeezed onto the single sofa, with us kids crammed onto a bedsheet spread out on the floor right in front of the screen.
The anticipation was almost unbearable while we waited to see what movie he’d brought home from the local video library. If Uncle popped the VCD into the player and those iconic opening credits of a Shah Rukh Khan movie started rolling, the whole room just erupted. Complete joy. We’d sit there captivated, humming along to the songs, totally lost in the magic.
But God forbid it was one of those slow, painfully boring movies or a preachy documentary that only Uncle found interesting. Back then, you couldn’t just whip out a smartphone when you got bored. And asking an uncle to change the channel? Forget about it. You just didn't disrespect your elders like that. So, you sat there sweating under the ceiling fan, listening to that slow thup-thup sound, staring blankly at the screen, and just suffering through it. You had no choice but to commit.
Now? We have zero patience. If a YouTube video or an Instagram Reel doesn't hook us in three seconds, we just keep scrolling. We start five different shows on Netflix and never finish any of them. It’s too easy to find something else, and honestly, it’s completely ruined our attention spans.
This is why just sitting down to watch a normal two-hour movie without touching our phones feels almost impossible now. We’re always multitasking for no reason—the laptop is playing a show, but our eyes are on our phones, checking WhatsApp, or scrolling. We act like being bored for even a few seconds is the worst thing in the world.
Because there is so much content coming out every single day, keeping up with pop culture has started to feel like extra homework.
You walk into college or join a group chat, and someone asks, "Did you see the new season of that anime?" or "Have you watched that new thriller series yet?" If you say no, you feel totally left out of the conversation. You start mentally adding these shows to a checklist in your head. I need to watch this 8-part series just so I can understand the memes my friends are sharing.
This pressure is exactly why so many of us retreat to "comfort watching." Sometimes, at the end of a chaotic day of lectures, exams, and worrying about the future, you just don't have the brainpower to watch a heavy, complicated mystery where you must pay attention to every detail. You don't want to think. You want to hang out with fictional characters who feel like old friends. You want the predictable, warm embrace of an old comedy show or a comfort movie you know by heart. You already know the jokes, and more importantly, you already know that everything turns out fine in the end.
Yet, despite our obsession with our personal screens and earphones, we still have this deep desire to experience things together.
Look at what happens when a massive movie manages to get everyone's attention. Going to the theatre for a massive first-day-first-show blockbuster isn’t just about the movie itself; it’s an excuse to scream, cheer, and clap in a dark room full of strangers when the hero makes an entry. Look at the absolute madness whenever a popular artist announces a concert tour or when everyone crowds around a single phone screen in the college canteen to watch the final overs of an intense cricket match.
In a world where we can watch anything alone in our rooms, sharing a moment with other people has become special. We want to look at the person next to us when a crazy plot twist happens or feel the energy of a crowd cheering at the exact same time.
At the end of the day, the way we watch things is just a reflection of our lives. We use it to take a break when life gets too stressful, to learn about things we are curious about, and to connect with people who like the same things we do.
So tonight, when I inevitably sit down and start scrolling through a streaming app for 40 minutes, I’ll try to be a little less annoyed at myself. Eventually, I’ll find a story worth getting lost in. And if not, I can always just put on that old Shah Rukh Khan movie and remember what it felt like to sit on the living room floor at my uncle's house.
