Volume 4: 2022
Author:
Amna Ejaz
Abstract:
Of the many lasting changes that the COVID-19 pandemic bought across the world, whether destructive or innovative in nature, one major change was that it compelled people to restrict themselves to their homes. During the lockdown period, the cinema experience of young adults in metropolitan centers of Pakistan underwent a stark shift, with their screen time sky-rocketing. It was also a time when young adults began consuming a lot more video content from their subscriptions to Netflix. This article explores the changing screen culture in Pakistan after the coming of Netflix, an American streaming platform, to Pakistan in 2016 and how its arrival affected the content choices that young adults make. I majorly focus on an audience-based study, relying on interviews and surveys, to understand what is common to these Netflix subscribers. What are people watching, and why? What determines these choices? How does the Netflix platform enable binge-watching? With this data as its foundation, this article delves into a detailed discussion on Netflix algorithms, its features such as subtitles, and the user experience to understand how it blurs the “global” and “local” divide in an “online viewing universe” (Evans et al. 409). The recurring reference to the convenience that Netflix brought about for these users is also then analyzed to understand patterns of binge-watching and the illusion of control that the platform invokes in its users. Specifically, for the Pakistani experience, this article discusses issues of piracy, the traction of online streaming websites and what this means for the users as well as for the content creators.
Keywords
Young Adults, Netflix in Pakistan, Netflix Screen Culture, Online Streaming, Transnational, Globalization, Screen Choices
