The numbers of teenagers choosing to spend their nights at home alone on their couches is rising in the nation, and that is thanks to Netflix. Whether you like tales of drama on the Upper East Side of Manhattan or life walking with the dead, Netflix has a show or movie for you.

My life with Netflix has traveled from “Gossip Girl” to “How I Met Your Mother” with a lot of random shows in between.  In the 15 years Netflix has been operating, it has streamed and delivered to over 50 million viewers in North America, South America, and countries in Europe.

The beauty behind Netflix is that the next episode is sitting there waiting for you to play it, or in some cases counting down the seconds until it begins in the lower right hand corner of your screen.  This is the Netflix effect, and students are binge watching their favorite shows to the point that their Xboxes will eventually ask them if they are even still watching anymore, because they haven’t even needed to touch the controller for the last four episodes.  This doesn’t happen to me very often, because my impatience forces me to select the next episode before my Xbox has the time to count down and play it on its own.

Most of these shows are an emotional roller coaster, like in “How I Met Your Mother.”  During the season one finale, Ted and Robin finally get together just as Lily leaves Marshall for San Francisco.  The viewer is left in an emotional state of distress.

Greg Dillon, associate professor of psychiatry and public health at Weill Cornell Medical College, said, “Even a single episode has so many highs and lows that by the end of it you’re so beaten up, you’re less receptive to the emotional and intellectual ideas being put forth. Yet still we click and watch another one.”

It is true, we still want to see that next episode and there’s no way of stopping it; the app can travel with you on your phone and is never more than a few clicks away.

The students of NKHS tend not to complain about the obsession, myself included.  It’s relaxing and getting lost in the world of “One Tree Hill” is better than stumbling through reality.

Sophomore Katie Sullivan said, “I watch it when I’m bored and it’s really nice because you can watch whole seasons with no commercials; it’s a great invention for teenagers.” Sullivan’s classmates would agree with her.

Fellow sophomore Alyssa Gauthier said, “It’s amazing and a great way to procrastinate.”

That pretty much sums up the use of Netflix in the lives of NKHS.  It’s there to do instead of homework.  We would rather put up with the wide range of emotions that the shows inflict on us instead of dealing with the range of emotions that come with algebra or history.  Netflix has become an essential part of our lives, gluing our eyes to the screen and bodies to the couch.