4.2. Pre-viewing motivations (RQ1)
4.2.2. Instrumental motives
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38 reality anymore:
When I was preparing my test before entering school, I feel like why I spent all my day in studying and I felt so frustrated because it was my senior year and all of my friends were going out and traveling. At that time, I really wanted to escape, so I would lock my door so my mom wouldn’t know I wasn’t studying and I would watch dramas. (Participant T2, May 21st 2018)
Eighty percent of the American participants (N1, N2, N3, N5, N7, N8, N9 and N10) also used binge-watching to escape reality. They used binge-watching primarily as a way to escape their workload, their emotions, a difficult situation, the realities of life, or just immerse themselves to forget their day. Participant N9 (Head of Products, 30 yrs.) said:
Like maybe I have a lot of work to do, but I don’t want to do it, so I decide I want to binge-watch instead to avoid doing any work or I got into a fight with my boyfriend and I don’t really want to think about it, so I just want to watch something to make me think about something else. (Participant N9, June 1st 2018)
Similarly, participant N10 (Sales clerk, 23 yrs.) said, “Sometimes when I’m feeling down I guess I will use it to escape the realities of life or whatever tough situation I’m facing at the moment”
(Participant N10, June 29th 2018). Participant N5 (Junior Account Executive, 25 yrs.) had an even stronger explanation for using binge-watching as an escape:
One of my preferred genres is actually fantasy because I am so sick of real life. Like you read the news and it’s all negative, so you just want to watch something that is a little…
even if you are watching something dramatic, it has no real-life implications for you. So yeah, I would say some time it is to escape reality. (Participant N5, May 25th 2018) Binge-watching drama is a type of media behavior to help individuals escape into a different reality for a little while so they can overcome whatever situation they feel they cannot deal with at that precise moment of time in their life.
4.2.2. Instrumental motives
Instrumental motivation was adapted from the U&G Theory and was used to answer RQ1. It is defined as a motivation to do or achieve something to get worldly benefit (Khan et al, 2016).
Instrumental motivations consist of 2 sub-codes: social goals and passing time and reducing boredom.
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4.2.2.1. Passing time and reducing boredom
Overall, 86% of the participants have binge-watched dramas to pass time or reduce boredom, defined as a way for individuals to amuse themselves and serves to make time pass agreeably and reduce the feeling of boredom (Merikivi et al., 2017; Allardice, 2015). Interestingly, there were a few of the Taiwanese and American participants who stated that passing time and reducing boredom did not necessarily occur at the same time and could happen in different situations. The following paragraphs will discuss the reasons and situations that motivated the participants to binge-watch dramas and in which situations these could occur separately.
Except for participant T4 (Master’s student, 25 yrs.), all the Taiwanese participants (91%) binge-watched dramas for the reasons of killing time and reducing boredom. For example, participant T1 (Master’s student, 24 yrs.) said, “Yes, when I am bored and I don’t want to go outside and I have a lot of time, if I want to pass time or kill time, I will binge-watch” dramas (Participant T1, May 21st 2018). Likewise, participant T6 (Fashion designer, 26 yrs.) had similar thoughts, “Most of the time I watch it for killing time… when I’m bored I just turn on the OTT and watch a drama that looks interesting” (Participant T6, May 28th 2018). It was the same for participant T7 (Master’s student, 25 yrs.) who said, “Most of the time it is intentional to kill time and not be bored, for example I will watch Netflix before I go to sleep” (Participant T7, May 30th 2018).
However, for a few of them passing time and reducing boredom are mutually exclusive. For participants T9 and T11 binge-watching for passing time and reducing boredom happened in different situations and for participant T8 only one of those motivated him to binge-watch.
Participant T9 (Undergraduate student, 22 yrs.) said, “I think [I binge-watch] to reduce boredom the most. I think pass time and boredom are two different things. It also depends on different series. If it is talking about nothing important and it is just for fun, it is reducing boredom”
(Participant T9, June 3rd 2018). Similarly, participant T11 (Master’s student, 25 yrs.) said that she watched during dinner time to reduce boredom as she ate and also watched to pass time when she commuted to Neili, a town near Taipei city where she studies (Participant T11, June 8th 2018). Both participants gave good examples on how using binge-watching as a tactic for passing time and reducing boredom could occur at different moments of their day. For
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participant T8 (Sound designer, 25 yrs.), however, binge-watching had the only purpose of reducing boredom (Participant T8, June 1st 2018).
Eighty percent of the American participants (N1, N2, N3, N5, N6, N8, N9 and N10) used binge-watching with the motivation of passing time and reducing boredom. Similarly, to the Taiwanese participants, most of the participants were motivated to binge-watch for these motives; however, for participant N1, N2, N8 and N9 passing time and reducing boredom were not mutually exclusive. Participant N8 (Retail, 26 yrs.) was a great example for such a situation:
I do it partly to pass time as well as being interested in it. If I’m waiting somewhere when I am out then I can watch something on my phone. Recently my dad got a procedure at the hospital, so while I was waiting for it to be done I sat in the waiting room and watched stuff on my phone. It helped pass the time of him getting his procedure while I was waiting. In a sense I would also say I watch to reduce boredom. If it’s a lazy day, I am also interested in the show, but it does help obviously pass time and it is better to watch than sit doing nothing and thus become bored. In a sense it would also decrease my boredom because it keeps my mind in something else. (Participant N8, May 30th 2018) Participant N2 (Billing coordinator and EA to Group COO, 26 yrs.) used binge-watching in a similar tactic to pass time:
If it is in cases that I am on an airplane or on a train or waiting in line, those little situations where time is going by slowly because you are waiting for something or you are not where you want to be or you are not doing something, this is when it comes in handy because you can just pop in your headphones and start watching a show until whatever you are waiting for is done. (Participant N2, May 22nd 2018)
Participant N1 (Production coordinator, 24 yrs.), on the other hand, used binge-watching to reduce boredom, “Yes. I would definitely not say I have many hobbies. One of my hobbies is watching movies and watching TV [watching dramas on OTT TV]. It works in terms of getting rid of boredom” (Participant N1, May 21st 2018).
4.2.2.2. Social goals
Overall, 76% of the participants binge-watched dramas due to social motivations, meaning to achieve the goal for socialization such as co-viewing, social interaction, and discussing viewing content with others (Rubenking et al., 2018). In both the Taiwanese and American participants, the social goal motives only varied slightly. The interviewees were motivated to binge-watch
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dramas due to friends’ recommendations, co-viewing with friends or to keep up with friends to discuss or bond later, and to recommend dramas to others, to name a few reasons. The similarities and slight differences are discussed further in the following paragraphs.
Ninety-one percent of the Taiwanese participants (T1, T2, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10, T11) had various social motives to binge-watch. Some of these motives could be caused by friends discussing a drama on a social media platform or others in general discussing on online platforms; due to recommendation of friends; to keep up with friends and be able to discuss with them; and to be able to recommend the drama to others. Participant T1 (Master’s student, 24 yrs.), like participant T7 (Master’s student, 25 yrs.) and T8 (Sound designer, 25 yrs.), have binge-watched dramas because friends or others discussed a drama on a social media platform:
Sometimes when I see information about a popular or ongoing drama, I will go to watch that. Or sometimes if I see many of my friends discussing about a drama on Facebook then I will go see what it is about. (Participant T1, May 21st 2018)
Participants T2, T4, T5, T6, T9, and T10 binge-watched dramas because of friend’s recommendations. Participant T4 (Master’s student, 25 yrs.) said, “Sometimes if my friend recommends this series and I find this very interesting I will watch it” (Participant T4, May 24th 2018). For some, however, like participant T2 and T5, it was not only about the recommendation, but also about being able to discuss the drama with friends. Participant T2 (Master’s student, 23 yrs.) said, “I have a friend that likes to laugh and to watch comedy, I think every time she recommends something—she knows my taste—so we can laugh together and talk about it” (Participant T2, May 21st 2018). Even more so, participant T5 (Undergraduate student, 22 yrs.) decided to binge-watch because everyone was watching the show, Game of Thrones, and he wanted to be able to discuss with his friends (Participant T5, May 25th 2018). Similarly, participant T11 (Master’s student, 25 yrs.) said that due to her group of friends she needed to watch different content to be able to start conversations with her friends:
My friends are divided in 2 groups. One really likes K-dramas and the other really likes western dramas. I do love western drama more because I feel the plot is deeper and the topic is broader, but sometimes watching K-drama you can feel like you can live in a fantasy world sometimes. I have to watch K-dramas to start conversations with my friends. (Participant T11, June 8th 2018)
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For participants T5 and T11, their friendships influenced the content they watched so they could discuss with their friends in the future. Lastly, participant T10 (Undergraduate student, 22 yrs.) was the only one that said that after watching a drama he will discuss it, but also recommend the drama to others (Participant T10, June 3rd 2018). From this it seems that maybe participant T10 wants to be even more engaged with his social groups and hence be more motivated to binge-watch to have more shows to discuss and recommend.
Sixty percent of the American participants (N1, N2, N5, N6, N7, and N8) stated social motives prompt their drama binge-watching. Some of these motives are similar to those of the Taiwanese participants: co-viewing with a friend to discuss it or bond; to catch up with a friend for later discussion; and due to recommendation of friends. Participants N1 and N2 stated that they have watched with friends to discuss a show (Participant N1, May 21st 2018; Participant N2, May 22nd 2018). Participant N2 (Billing coordinator and EA to Group COO, 26 yrs.) even said “I have this friend at work and in a way to socially bond with her, since we were both interested in the same thing, we would binge-watch a show together… It was a social way of interacting” (Participant N2, May 22nd 2018). For participant N2 (Billing coordinator and EA to Group COO, 26 yrs.), binge-watching seems to have functioned as a means to strengthen relationships with others.
Both, participant N6 (Laboratory Technician, 26 yrs.) and N8 (Retail, 26 yrs.) stated that they binge-watched to discuss with people later on (Participant N6, May 26th 2018; Participant N8, May 30th 2018). In participant N6’s case, he also used binge-watching as a means to gain knowledge to participate in Trivia in a social setting as a host and player (Participant N6, May 26th 2018). Participants N5 (Junior Account Executive, 25 yrs.) and N7 (ESL teacher, 25 yrs.) were the only ones to state that they watched by recommendation (Participant N5, May 25th 2018; Participant N7, May 30th 2018). However, only participant N7 said that sometimes this led to co-viewing or a situation where she had to catch up to “be on the same page and discuss the show together” with her friends (Participant N7, May 30th 2018).
Lastly, out of all the Taiwanese and American participants, participant N8 (Retail, 26 yrs.) was the only one to do co-viewing with friends to see their reactions (Participant N8, May 30th 2018).
He said, “I have done like watching shows with friends because I want them to watch them, like
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shows I have already watched, and I enjoy seeing their reactions and comparing them to my own” (Participant N8, May 30th 2018). It is interesting how for other participants it was about engaging with others and having a good time together, but for participant N8, while it is still a good time and he had fun, it was more about experiencing their reactions, which could be a situation that leads to discussion as that way they can compare even more.