Edit desk: Turn off

Karen Konkoly, B&W Staff

In 1993, K. Anders Ericsson published his finding that individual differences in a domain of expertise, even among the most elite performers, are closely related to their amount of deliberate practice. Ericsson, a psychologist recognized as one of the world’s leading researchers on expertise, found that it takes 10,000 hours of practice for most people to obtain mastery in most fields of practice.

Malcom Gladwell publicized this study in 2008 in his book “The Outliers.” In it, he tells the stories of how dozens of extremely successful people – for instance, Bill Gates and the members of The Beatles – owe their success to these 10,000 hours of practice. These studies often cite that attaining mastery will take about 10 years, which equates to nearly three hours of practice each day. Who has time for that?!

By this rule, the average American youth attains mastery in the art of watching television before age 10. According to the leading global information and management company Nielsen, children ages 2-3 watch more than 24 hours of television a week. College-age students watch more than 22, and by the time we’re middle-aged, we will be watching, on average, more than 33 hours of television per week.

Many college students will deny spending anywhere near this much time in front of the TV. Sure, they might watch some of the football game their friend turned on or tune in once a week to the newest episode of “The Bachelor,” but few will remember watching 22 hours a week – that’s over three hours a day! For students at a college so work-hard-play-hard as Lehigh, the statistic simply cannot be true. Right?

Now think about the last show you watched on Netflix. Sixty-eight percent of college students use Netflix to binge-watch three or more episodes of a show in one sitting. Ever spent a Saturday or a winter break catching up on your latest favorite series? Twenty-two hours a week can rack up pretty quick.

Some will argue that Netflix produces quality TV. Immersing yourself in one of their well-written and addictive dramas seems like a great way to relax and unwind. As long as it doesn’t interfere with schoolwork, nothing is wrong with a weekend of Netflix.

Except that the hours you’re losing in front of a screen could be changing your life and the lives of others. There are endless other ways to relax or entertain yourself to the same or greater degree as watching TV, and nearly all of them could prove more productive.

If we spent this time doing something else, something we could fall in love with and be passionate about, from practicing a sport to playing an instrument to cooking to drawing to forming relationships with others, the average American would be able to achieve mastery in two domains of expertise by the time they graduate college. By age 64, the average American has spent – and this is a very conservative estimate using the data collected from Neilson – 92,550 hours watching television. The average American could be a master, and I’m talking a Bill Gates- and Beatles-level master, at nine different things without significantly reorganizing their life agenda.

Imagine if, instead of boasting that you watched an entire season of “House of Cards” last weekend, you started cultivating a life-changing hobby like counting cards! Nobody is going to invite you to their 21st birthday in Vegas because you are intimately familiar with the character idiosyncrasies of Frank Underwood, but everybody wants an expert card counter in their friend group. *

By choosing leisure activities that require skills that can meaningfully improve, anyone can benefit from this direct correlation between practice and performance. All you need to do is anything. Just put down the remote.

Please tell me if Netflix is worth that to you.

*Michelle Konkoly, a recent Georgetown graduate and experienced Netflix binge-watcher, provided field data for this study