THE IMPACT OF STREAMING SERVICES ON YOUTH TELEVISION VIEWING HABITS AND MEDIA LITERACY

Abstract

Streaming services have revolutionized the entertainment industry and have a pivotal role in attracting youth for movie and television shows. The availability of streaming services such as NetFlix, Amazon and other platforms have drastically reduced traditional television viewing. Due to availability of the shows at any time youth are habituated to binge e-watching resulting in a single session watching complete seasons of different shows in one sitting. The e-watching has helped the youth to increase their knowledge about various cultures, beliefs, and perspectives which has helped in improving their overall understanding of the world. However, this also has led to exposure of youth to inappropriate content resulting in parental monitoring of the content usage. Media literacy has been increased by streaming services. The appropriate use of specific content for desired work needs navigation and critical evaluation. Thus, media literacy of young people is being improved by streaming services. The present review has identified that streaming services have beneficial effects on media literacy and improving the knowledge and exposure of the youth. The exposure to inappropriate content needs to be monitored so that beneficial aspects are more prominent and youth have productive outcomes based on utilization of streaming services.