Content, Content Everywhere! Curating Your Viewing Experience While On Lockdown

The COVID-19 lockdown is proving tough on all of us. We’re all plagued with uncertainty and doubt when we look to the future. Many of us have faced significant changes to our day-to-day lives. Some will have lost a significant portion or indeed all of their income. We’re finding that the stress and strain of being cooped up indoors all day every day can prove a challenge to even the sweetest of temperaments.

In these uncertain times, our home entertainment is more than just a distraction. It’s vial in getting us through the day and helping us to feel positive and motivated, no matter what the world throws at us. Still, with so much content out there streaming straight to your home it can be like that old poem “Water, water everywhere, not any drop to drink”. Except replace water with digital content. Eh, doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?

Here are some tips to help you to curate your viewing experience and get the most out of your streaming services while on lockdown.

Use a guide to help you get to the good stuff

With so many streaming services on the market, it’s easy to lose track of who’s showing what, who has the rights to what movies and shows and where you can find the content you love. Use an American Streaming Guide to help you to search through what’s available on the various streaming services. It’s the best way to stay up to date, especially when streaming services have that annoying habit of dropping and picking up new content at such a fast pace that it’s hard to keep up.

Push yourself out of your comfort zone

As well as enjoying familiar favorites, you should also try to push yourself out of your comfort zone and try new things. You may have more time on your hands than usual. Why not use it to broaden your cultural palette. For instance, if you usually enjoy big blockbusters, try picking out some carefully curated indie flicks or films from overseas?

As Bong Joon Ho, director of the Oscar winning South Korean film Parasite, recently said “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films,”.

Beware the urge to binge

Finally, while there’s tremendous satisfaction to be found in losing yourself in a season of The Mandalorian or Better Call Saul, beware the urge to binge. Bingeing content is much like bingeing anything else. Satisfying at first, but ultimately very bad for you. Binge watching has been linked to poor mental health including increased risk of depression and anxiety, as well as sleep loss and a generally more sedentary lifestyle.

Try and aim for moderation, even though it can seem as though your TV is your only recourse from the world’s ills.

We may all miss things like seeing a West End show with friends or attending a fascinating lecture. However, with careful curation of our streaming services we can still enjoy a balanced cultural diet with just the right amount of comfort, stimulation and challenge!