From Binge-Watching to Binge-Scrolling

This article approaches the paradigm of binge-watching from within a wider ecology of networked media forms and practices, which have collectively reinforced a relationship between staying home, staying connected, and staying safe during the pandemic. It explores how the short form video platform TikTok has strategically tapped into the pleasures associated with the binge model, in order to construct the nascent concept of binge-scrolling as one means of addressing the thorny problem of lockdown boredom. The piece suggests that the paradigm of bingeing now exists across a spectrum of media forms and practices, operating as one specific means of organizing time and attention in an age of digital psychopolitics.