We’ve all been there. Nestling a steaming bowl of your favourite Instant Ramen Noodles, buried among the fluffy pillows, a warm blanket by your toes, which you’ve probably had since you were 10 (I mean the blanket …, not the toes), phone on DND, or better yet, switched off, lights off, to give that ‘theatre feel’, and… rewatching your favourite comfort show, probably for the millionth time. It’ll probably be F.R.I.E.N.D.S or even better, Taarak Mehta ka Oolta Chashma. Bet it sounds so perfect, that you’ve got a craving to do that right at this moment, dropping all of your work.
My point? Why is it that, we don’t seem to get bored of rewatching these shows? Even though, we can probably recite all the dialogues word to word, even in our sleep. Are these shows just that addictive? Well, yeah… But there must be some other reason too, right. People have different genres of comfort shows. Not all prefer the ‘comedic route,’ some may also binge on Crime Thriller, Paranormal, Documentaries, it all varies. But there must be a reason why we find ‘our’ shows, so particularly addictive, and comforting. And here’s what I found out.
The reason- ‘Science of Familiarity.’ Humans as a species tend to find comfort in things that are familiar. The fear of the ‘Unknown’ is so great that we tend to cling to things that are well-acquainted to us. And this not only applies to shows, but also people, situations, food, and a lot many things. The very idea of stepping out of our ‘comfort zone’ seems intimidating for us. And that’s exactly why a lot of people have difficulty in moving out of toxic relationship, a forced friendship, a habitual routine pattern, …, It’s not that they don’t want to move forward, but the dark shadow of the unknown looms over their head, causing them to stick to the known, even if it may seem repetitive or ‘toxic’ to others. A person may also hang onto their comfort shows or situations, because at some level, they feel like they have no control over the rest of their life. And so, since they already know it all, the show in this case, they feel like they regained the power over at least this part in their life. It isn’t a big question mark, unlike the rest of the aspects in their life, and there is clarity.
As to whether it is healthy or not for humans to be co-dependent on a show, or a food, or even a person, is still up for question. But, well, I’d say, if a person, finds comfort, whatever be the source of it, let him live. For what is life, if not a passing phase, the days would go by as if in a daze…
