Netflix offers members streaming movies and television shows to watch instantly. However, it seems to be the full series of shows that attracts most students. Having to wait barely any time for the show to load and having to wait even less time for the next episode to start, entices many students to “binge-watch” entire series – meaning they watch the entirety of a series in one or two nights.

“You’re weird if you don’t do it. How can you stop after one episode?” Michal Szczepanek, junior, said reflecting on watching television episodes on Netflix.

Szczepanek is currently hooked on the show “Hannibal” and said he is guilty of binge-watching because each episode leaves the viewer with a cliffhanger. He says it is a vicious cycle.

“When I get home from work, I have to make dinner, so I watch an episode of something. But once the episode ends, it just annoys me because it leaves you with a question. Like what the heck … what’s going to happen next?” Szczepanek said. “So I watch the next one to find out, even if I have things to do, so it keeps me up late. But it’s fine, that’s what Starbucks is for.”

Before Szczepanek watched “Hannibal,” he was hooked on “House of Cards,” a show that returned to Netflix Feb. 14 for its second season. Similarly, junior Ashik Thakkar, said he started watching “House of Cards” as soon as it came to Netflix and finished both seasons in about 50 hours.

Christina Robertson, senior, said she also watches episode after episode because it is convenient.

“I’m addicted to ‘Breaking Bad.’ I started watching it last year on Netflix around spring break with my roommate. We couldn’t stop watching it,” Robertson said. “And the best part was that Netflix is so cheap. We got to watch every episode for like $8 or however much Netflix is a month.”

Robertson said she hates having to wait each week for a new episode and the availability of the whole series on Netflix allows her to watch one episode after the next.

Junior Temuulen Erdenekhuu, who watched “House of Cards” and plans to watch “The Big Bang Theory” next, agrees that Netflix makes it easy to watch several episodes in a row. “It’s also a great way to procrastinate,” Erdenekhuu said.

Many students said they watch an entire series in a couple of days when they are overly busy on a weekday, or conversely when they are entirely free on a weekend or school break. Students say that the wild endings of many shows, or lack there of, make them watch another episode.

“My binge-watching experience usually starts because I’m bored and think starting a new TV show would be fun. When the show is as good as ‘Scandal,’ you can’t help but get addicted and watch episode after episode, especially when the previous episode ended on a cliffhanger,” Jessica Duarte, junior, said. “I spent nine or 10 hours one Saturday last year finishing season two of ‘Scandal’; I just couldn’t stop watching until I found out what happens to Olivia Pope.”

There has to be something besides the thrilling content and the low cost convenience of Netflix that subjects students to this cycle. Some students are not proud that they can comfortably watch an entire season in days.

“Seven seasons of ‘The West Wing’ in a week. Not my finest moments,” Ariel Rosen, senior, said.

Many people call themselves “guilty” when asked if they have ever binge-watched before. “Yeah, I’m sad. I definitely had a problem. My best friend had to pry me to see the outside world from falling into the hole of ‘Cake Boss’ and TLC shows,” Jessica Lin, junior, said.

Despite some of the guilt though, “Entourage-” and “Game of Throneshooked” junior Phil Montera says, “It’s a norm for our generation.”

Paul Booth, an assistant professor of new media and technology at DePaul, said that although Netflix has made it more popular, binge-watching actually started before Netflix. Booth said binge-watching started in fan cultures in the 1980s when they would come together and watch their favorite shows while enjoying each other’s company. Popular binge-watching includes movies like “Star Trek” and shows like “Starsky and Hutch” and “Beauty and the Beast.”

However, Booth said binge-watching became more common in the 2000s when DVDs started to come out.

“When Netflix first came out, it was a DVD-by-mail service, which aided this DVD watching,” Booth said. “But when it became a streaming service is when we saw binge-watching becoming a major topic in popular press articles.”

Booth believes that people are able to watch and are almost forced to watch an entire series because the shows are designed to be consumed at that rate. It is easy to forget an intricate story line if a viewer has to wait a week to resume it. Therefore, it makes much more sense to watch the entirety of the season at one time.

Another reason Booth said people binge-watch is because they get a certain satisfaction from watching an entire season in a small amount of time. Nonetheless, Booth admits that there are consequences for watching so much television in one-go. He says our attention cannot hold for the entirety of the show and that people lose the eye for detail.

“When the fourth season of “Arrested Development” came out, creator Mitch Hurwitz said that he hoped people wouldn’t binge-watch because it is hard to be emotionally invested for a very long stretch of time,” Booth said.

In late February, Netflix made a deal with Comcast that will deliver Netflix’s content straight to Comcast, thus improving its quality.

“Binge-watching is good business, so I would guess it will be around for awhile,” Booth said.