To repeat: Why we are reviewing movies and TV series
A Life / / December 19, 2019
The question of why people repeat some actions over and over again, worried philosophers, anthropologists, economists and psychologists for centuries.
Søren Kierkegaard (Søren Kierkegaard) wrote:
Repetition and recollection - one and the same movement, but in opposite directions. Remembering turns man back, forcing him to repeat what was, in the reverse order. Genuine the repetition causes a person, remembering to anticipate what will be.
We appeal to the repetition of habits, Addiction, as a ritual, or to enter into a state of status quo. Habits like running in the morning usually work automatically and in itself regular. We do not even have to think about how to make that habit - this's the beauty.
Bad habits such as smoking, barely controlled by us, and lead to physical dependence. This is the addiction.
In addition, there are rituals. For example, when we are celebrating the New Year or put on a "lucky" socks before the exam. In contrast to the habits and rituals we choose and are able to control them.
When the researchers Christel Anthony Russell (Cristel Antonia Russel) and Sidney Levy (Sidney Levy) interviewed who reads a book reviewing a movie or visit your favorite page on the Internet, the results of the survey are not particularly fit into any of the above categories.
Instead, scientists have found that people are looking for familiar entertainment on certain reasons, for example, to return the lost sensations and emotions or to assess the rapid passage of time.
The most obvious reason
The most basic reason that people are reviewing the same movie, is that... well, they really like this movie. Familiar video requires less energy and mental effort for the processing of incoming information.
When we can easily think about something, we automatically regard this as a good and pleasant.
If this sounds a reason for you too unscientific, that's the official explanation of the research problem.
Russell and Levy point out that it is called reconstructive consumption. This is the term used scientists to describe the behavior of participants in the experiment, and again review the "Friends" or "Matrix". These people would like to remind ourselves what happened in the story, but also happy to notice the new details, which could be seen only at the time of the revision of the series or movie.
It seems that if you watch something again and again, then sooner or later it loses its original appeal. But psychologists say: repetition leads to attachment. This is called the exposure, and scientists are sure that some of the things we have come to love more, and because often come back to him.
Perhaps a new song you like, not only because it is melodic and catchy, but more because it is already included in the radio thirtieth time per day.
Nostalgia
In the same way as we are pleased to return to the familiar movies and TV shows just because we are well know their story, we can be nice to remember the past, simply because it already once It was.
Clay Routledge (Clay Routledge), a psychologist at the University of North Dakota, has been studying the phenomenon of nostalgia. He argues: There are two "strains" of this cultural phenomenon. First - historical: nostalgia as a general sense of longing for the past. The second - an autobiographical: nostalgia as a sense of longing of the individual for his own past.
Sometimes we watch an old movie, to feel a sense of tenderness again to what it was. Sometimes we even more selfish. One study Rutledge confirms that people often listen to music from the past, because at that time they "feel loved" and "knew that for which to live."
We like to go back to his own pop-cultural experience in order to remember the past and to feel well and happy again.
Modern scientists call it regressive re-consumption. We use entertainment as a time machine, to revive the fading memories again.
therapeutic reasons
One of the stories is given in the study of Russell and Levi, very impressive.
Member named Nelson experiment told the scientists that he went on a trip to Florence and Siena decades ago. Then he went on a trip with his wife and two children. 40 years later, his wife and son Nelson left this world.
The man had planned another trip to Italy and worked every detail of his journey. He stopped near the same attractions and attended the same cafes, hotels and restaurants. By his own admission, it was akin to a pilgrimage, sentimental voyage. Nelson said that this trip helped him come to terms again with my life.
Use of nostalgia, as a kind of therapy - a frequent phenomenon. This may be the best solution.
Research suggests that nostalgia brings natural feeling of comfort and warmth.
One of the most enjoyable qualities of old movies is that they can not surprise us. We know how they will end, and we know how we will feel after the final credits. This makes repeated consumption of something like a method of regulation of emotional state.
New books, movies and TV shows can deliver thrills, but also they are able to frustrate and disappoint us. Old movies not betray: we get older, but it remains the same. Thus, we get an effective instrument for the stabilization of our emotional background and we get exactly what they expected. And there are no surprises.
existential reason
You know that feeling when you find a song you have not heard for years, and from the very first notes, she reveals to you a kaleidoscope of memories?
Dynamic links between the past, present and future of the individual arising after the session re-use, give an existential sense of self.
Interaction with the familiar object, even a one-time, allows to relive the experience to understand the choices made once again experience the pleasure and enjoyment.
This is not nostalgia or therapy. It is a kind of palimpsest, when old memories and feelings imposed a new point of view.