Couples everywhere have bonded over the act of becoming engrossed in a television series together and watching it in mini-marathon sessions from beginning to end. Popular streaming services like Netflix and Hulu have made it easier to consume an entire series in just a few days. But with the convenience of this technology also comes the temptation to skip ahead and watch episodes when your spouse is not present, something that has now come to be known as “stream cheating”.
Today reports about a survey Netflix recently released that reveals 12% of the streaming service users admit they have cheated by secretly skipping ahead and watching episodes of a favorite TV show without their spouse. Some respondents even confessed that they would later re-watch the same episode with their spouse and pretend that it was their first time seeing the content. About 10% of us reveal we have been “stream cheated” on.
Interestingly, 80% of the “streaming cheaters” were male. The cheaters admit to sneaking screen time on work breaks and even in the bathroom.
Couples, who sometimes make pacts to view interesting TV shows together, often feel slighted when they find out their spouse has taken part in this activity without them. Daniel MacEachern, a contributor for the website "Television Without Pity", describes his wife’s cheating ways and how she came to watch an entire series without him. He says, “She thought, ‘I’ll just watch one episode,’ but once she was four or five episodes in, there was no point in me watching it with her. I think she was taking revenge on me because I watched 'The Walking Dead' without her.”
Have you or your spouse “stream cheated” in the past?
Would you fess up to sneaking episodes or re-watch with your spouse later as though it were your first time?
My husband and I have only a few things both of us like to watch. The only time we don't watch "our" shows together is when he is working out of town. So I don't consider it cheating. I call him the day after and tell him what happened on nights he misses
Interesting question! We used to watch a lot more movies before we were parents. Now we watch our shows together or I watch some on my own (I fell in love with "Dance Academy" on Amazon Prime, a show about an Aussie ballet high school). I'd fess up or re-watch, but as you can imagine my husband is SO not interested in watching a show about ballet dancers!
Sons of Anarchy when it hits Netflix. We also like to watch Arrested Development.