My Netflix consumption declined ~80% as I fixed myself the past few years
I made zero effort and I went from watching 6+ hours of streaming a night in early 2021 to less than an hour today in 2024.
The Youtube version
It’s Sunday close to 7pm my time as i finish this article up.
I’ve already put in about 5 hours of work today on my various businesses/activities and I plan to put in another few hours before I decide to finally chill.
Yesterday was Saturday. I probably did at least 6-7 hours of work while still doing several activities with the family.
Do I feel refreshed from the weekend? Yes. Completely.
And this despite the fact that last week I worked from 8am till past 10 pm everynight like a locomotive.
And all of this at age 47 while doing zero exercise, not taking any supplements and eating whatever crap i want.
This is my reality for almost the last two years and instead of burning out…. I just get more energy and more on point.
And today i’m going to talk about one element of this…. my need to ‘veg out’ has plummeted as I ‘fixed’ myself these past few years.
In early 2021 I was watching Netflix for about 6+ hours per day
In early 2021, I was recovering from one of my worst periods health-wise.
The previous year, I'd made the mistake of leaving myself with an open posterior bite for a number of months while I was working a pretty intense job…. and the consequences were severe.
By about 6 PM each day, I felt completely drained - mentally and physically exhausted.
I often had work to do in the evening but the thought of trying to do it just totally put me off. It was as if I dreaded it. And so I’d just keep procrastinating.. typically getting very little done in the end.
Unable to focus or work, I'd spend my evenings binge-watching Netflix and other streaming services (HBO, Prime Video, etc.). I subscribed to pretty much all of them because when you watch this much tv… you run out of ‘quality’ things to watch real fast.
Why did I watch this much? Simple… it didn't require mental effort.
In 2024 I watch ~60 minutes of Netflix + Youtube per day
Now, my viewing habits have changed dramatically.
I average probably about an hour of streaming content daily, and even then, I prefer educational content like YouTube podcasts where I'm learning something.
I watch Lex Fridman, My First Million, Greg Isenberg, Lenny Rachitsky, Andrew Schulz and some others. And I can often watch this stuff pretty much till I go to bed.
Despite the fact that it is pretty ‘educational’ and perhaps less relaxing.
The desire to "zone out" in front of an endless stream of bad Netflix movies and second rate series has virtually disappeared.
Instead, I love working and being productive, often until late in the evening. Often only stopping working around 11pm to finally turn on some Youtube/Netflix.
My brain feels like a machine that just doesn’t get tired.
I made no effort to make this change
What's fascinating is that this transformation happened organically.
I never set out to reduce my streaming consumption or made any conscious effort to change my habits.
As my structural health improved through these biomechanics over the past 3-4 years, my behavior naturally shifted.
My body simply stopped craving that passive entertainment. Instead I want to engage my brain as much as I can. It’s ready to soak in information and be educated for longer periods of time.
This isn't the first time I am noticing this
This pattern has repeated several times over the years during my cycles of improvement and decline.
What was initially surprising has become a predictable indicator of my structural health.
I'm confident this relationship between structural health and entertainment consumption will hold true for anyone who goes through this biomechanical improvement process.
I think this explains a lot at a wider scale
Americans consume more than 32 hours per week of tv or streaming content these days. This is almost 5 hours per day.
And remember that it is an average… so there are probably about 50% of Americans that are watching around 6 hours per day and some portion that are watching almost nothing.
This is more than any other country in the world.
And I don’t think this is coincidental. The US is also the country that is probably most impacted by the biomechanical issues I discuss.
Something that i discuss in this article about how this stuff is ‘generational’.
Closing thoughts
I believe there's a direct correlation between television/streaming consumption and the biomechanical stuff that I talk about here.
This isn't about age - I function better now than in my mid-twenties. It's about structural integrity and its impact on our energy levels and mental clarity.
When your body and brain are functioning optimally, you naturally seek more active, engaging activities. I literally feel guilty these days if i’m not still grinding away till at least 10pm… even on the weekends.
Because my brain WANTS it.
And I am pretty sure that science is going to be concluding the same thing in the coming decades. When it finally decides that i’m not some nutcase.
Note that i still expect to be toasting most twenty year olds when i’m 60+.. and then they’ll HAVE to pay attention to this weirdo who somehow has the game to back up his talk.
You see… it's not about willpower or discipline; it's about addressing the root cause of why we seek this type of entertainment in the first place.
The fact of the matter is most Americans are very ignorant. Why are they ignorant? Maybe because they're mentally lazy. They trust experts. They don't do any research on their own. Verify things on their own. Take a look at America's Top Most Wanted List: Ruja Ignatova. How did she pull that off? She got a PhD. That's how. lol. You think she'd be able to pull off a con like that with a bachelor's? No way. lol. That PhD gave her the legitimacy. In the dental field it's the same thing or any other field for that matter.
The truth of the matter is that the dental industry and your health are at odds. The only way they make money is by production. Hygen work will not bring in the big bucks. They need to do crowns, implants, All on x's etc. All at the expense of your health because ultimately they will mess up your bite. And what incentive do dentists have in doing a good job? You tell me. There is no incentive. They do a good job on a crown, you don't come back to fix that tooth for the next 20, 30 yrs, or even a life time. There's no money in it. But if they do a poor or mediocre job, you come back every 5 or so years to work on that tooth. You turn a crown into a implant. Maybe later on, full mouth reconstruction. That's the game because that's the money. And most people don't know good dentistry from bad. Dentists give all sorts of opinions on causes. They want you to try all sorts of methods. In the end, none will help because that's the money making game. It's pretty simple. Am i the only one that figured this out? lol
My Netflix watching has gone down to zero! I don't want to expose my brain to the cultural overlay bs anymore. So much happier now.