Summer break is a beautiful thing. The grass is green and the sun shines bright. The world is begging college kids who just got released from the stress of finals week to embrace it. But why would we do that when there is a whole world of entertainment at our fingertips?

In 2007 Netflix launched its streaming service into the world. In the years to follow the world has experienced a complete culture shift in the way that it consumes television. Instead of waiting week to week to check in on our favorite characters, we now have nearly unlimited seasons of varying plots that would literally take years to go completely through.

I grew up in a house that had no Wi-Fi, and hardly had cell-phone service. I would invite myself over to my friend’s house just so I could watch a few episodes of a show. The idea of being able to watch virtually any show from start to finish without any commercials amazed me.

But as my first summer living in my own apartment (with Wi-Fi) comes to an end and I have to rejoin the pressure of college, I am sitting here asking myself one question: Where did my summer go?

Instead of going off and exploring the world, I spent my precious moments on this Earth watching Michael Scott realize that running an office is really hard (that’s what she said).

With so many people watching so many different shows at once, fear of being left out of a conversation due to not seeing a show has become a real problem with this generation. When meeting a person for the first time, there are a limited amount of topics that can be brought up to find a connection. That topic has increasingly been “So what shows do you watch?”

The glow on the television screen can be so tempting. All your worries can be forgotten as you immerse yourself in the entertaining lives of others. But I challenge us as a society with unlimited entertainment to take a step away from it. Instead of streaming shows all day, live life to the fullest like Don Draper would.

Wait. What?

You seriously haven’t watched Mad Men?

Oh my God you have to see it, it’s about this guy who-

1.How many hours of Netflix did you watch this summer?

2. Do you feel watching Netflix took you away from other activities?

3. Do you feel Netflix has a negative impact on society?

Kyler Arnold – Fashion design – senior

1. “I probably watched about 3 hours a night.”

2. “I think that I spend my time pretty wisely and I’m very organized, so when I do watch Netflix it’s moments when I am 100% done with everything else. Including exercising.”

3. “I think it can. I don’t think you can generally say it does. [Some people] may end up behind or hindering other parts of their life.”

T’Erica Dawson – Criminal justice – senior

1. “I would probably say about, a good 20 hours.”

2. “That’s just typically about how much television I would watch in a given week.”

3. “Maybe in a way. Possibly. Because it defiantly takes us away from actually interacting with people on a personal level…Our social interaction defiantly decline because we’re couch potatoes.”

Aungelique Hanna – Multimedia communications – senior

1. “I’ll say 20, let’s go with 20.”

2. “It made me procrastinate longer but I definitely still ended up getting everything done.”

3. “Honestly no…I feel like people but a lot of blame on Netflix but it’s just like TV, so if you can’t control your usage with TV then you can’t blame Netflix.”

Photos by Ryan Redding.