What you chase is not the drama, but the pleasure of satisfying in time
Psychological talk
◎Yang Jianlan
Some time ago, iQiyi, Tencent, Youku and other video sites have announced the cancellation of advance on-demand.
As soon as the news came out, netizens clapped their hands and cheered.
The so-called advance on-demand refers to the online video platform members who want to continue watching later episodes after watching the updated episodes, they need to spend extra money to order them.
Some netizens believe that there is no need to pre-order, just wait for the update, and it’s okay to watch it a few days later.
But more netizens said that chasing dramas can rise up, but how can they bear it?
So, why is it addictive to chasing drama?
Why do you have to see the plot that you can see in a few days, even if you spend extra money?
Avoid pain and stress in the plot
The reason for the addiction to chasing drama is the same as that of playing games, which is to avoid pain and pursue happiness.
When we face a lot of pressure in real life and are unable to change, some people turn to the virtual world for a sense of happiness and accomplishment.
Psychological research has found that the high incidence of addiction is generally when a person is the most stressed and frustrated.
In a state of high pressure, people are prone to addiction to games, dramas, and tobacco and alcohol.
So why is it addictive to chasing drama?
Because the design of the plot, like the design of the game, accurately grasps the user's psychological desire to escape pain and pursue happiness, and continues to activate the reward pathway of the brain.
This reward pathway is the physiological basis of addictive behavior.
The film and television industry has summarized a creative rule: female audiences like to watch the story of "Prince Falling in Love with Cinderella", and male users like to watch the story of "Grassroots Counterattack Becomes a Hero".
In real life, it is not easy for us to get perfect love and success in business.
But in film and television dramas, you just have to imagine yourself as a male or female protagonist, and you have what you want.
The creators of film and television dramas are well versed in audience psychology. They know what audiences want to watch, what kind of emotions can make the audience happy, and how to design a series to make people addicted.
Lack of delayed gratification
On a well-known domestic video platform, the last 5 episodes of a popular costume drama were pre-ordered and sold for 30 yuan.
5 million people are willing to pay for this, so the above-mentioned video platform made 150 million yuan only by relying on the revenue of the show's advance on-demand.
Since then, setting advance on-demand has become a routine operation of major video platforms.
So, why are so many people willing to pay for advanced on-demand broadcasting?
People who are addicted to dramas can hardly resist not advancing on-demand.
They are relatively lacking because of one ability. This ability is called delayed gratification. Delayed gratification is one of the manifestations of self-control. It reflects whether a person can temporarily control one's own real-time for long-term gains when faced with temptation. Satisfy the impulse.
Viewers who are addicted to dramas and can't help but buy advanced on-demand broadcasts are generally seeking instant gratification.
Delaying gratification means to them not being satisfied, it means being deprived, and this feeling is very uncomfortable.
Walter Michel, a psychologist at Stanford University in the United States, has conducted a well-known psychological experiment in a kindergarten-the candy experiment, to study the impact of delayed gratification on personal development.
The object of the candy experiment is kids around 4 years old in kindergarten.
The researchers asked each of these children to stay in a small room with simple furnishings, and gave them a piece of delicious candy. At the same time, they told them: if you eat the candy right away, you can only eat one; if you wait 20 minutes before eating , The staff will reward them one more, that is, they can eat two.
Some children couldn't help eating candy right away, and 1/3 of the children could resist the temptation of candy. They used sleep, singing and other methods to divert their attention until the researchers came back and they received additional rewards.
Researchers tracked the performance of these children decades later and found that those children who can delay gratification have better academic performance and career achievement, their ability to resist stress and impulse control is stronger, and they can resist short-term temptations for long-term goals. , It is easier to succeed.
On the other hand, children who lack patience and need immediate gratification tend to be irritable, retreat and give up more easily when encountering setbacks.
Learn to manage your desires
Regardless of the fact that advanced on-demand broadcasting only costs a few dollars or tens of dollars, if you do not control your desires and allow instant gratification, it will bring many negative effects to your life, such as excessive consumption in advance.
The "Report on the Debt Status of Chinese Young People" shows that only 13.4% of the post-90s generation in my country have no debts, and the rest have an average debt of 127,000 yuan.
To overcome the negative effects of immediate gratification, we must manage our desires, develop the ability to delay gratification, and improve tolerance to frustration.
At the same time, we must learn to use reading, meditation, exercise, socializing and other methods to relieve stress.
In addition, we can also learn from the addictive mechanism of instant gratification and use it for study and work.
For example, break down study and work tasks into multiple easy-to-complete small tasks, and give you timely rewards after each small task is completed, so that you can get instant gratification.
In this way, you can gain a sense of accomplishment, reduce your reliance on chasing dramas and short videos, and face your own life with a more confident and optimistic attitude.
(The author is a national secondary psychological counselor)