By: Arwa Mahdawi

The World Health Organization recently classified obsessive video-gaming as an addiction. Not to sound like a compulsive gambler, but I bet it will not be long until “gaming disorder” is joined in the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases by another modern, screen-based malady: “Netflix disorder”.

I watch a lot of Netflix and I am starting to worry that it has become an emotional crutch. If I am feeling stressed or depressed, I self-medicate by staying up late, streaming show after show. Netflix is like audio-visual diazepam. It numbs my senses and makes me forget about everything else; – which is welcome, considering the state of the world. And just when I remember what I should be focusing on ... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, another episode starts automatically and I tune out again.

Entertainment has always been about escapism; there is nothing new about switching off by switching on the TV. What is new, however, is the degree to which Netflix, like all the big tech platforms, is engineered to be addictive. Netflix has turned unhealthy behaviour into an accepted part of modern culture. It does not even try to hide the fact that its ambition is to hook us all. Reed Hastings, Netflix’s CEO, has said its biggest competitor is sleep. “Think about it: when you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up late at night … we’re competing with sleep,” he said last year.

I am not the only one with a Netflix problem. The company has mushroomed in value for a reason. Millions of us are obsessed with it. Netflix has become the opium of the masses. Indeed, it is beginning to feel as though we are living in a real-world version of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest; we are entertaining ourselves to death.

To be honest, I am not sure if that analogy is right, because, like most people, I never finished reading Infinite Jest. But I am sure it will be on Netflix soon.