Second-screen watching has quietly become the way general audiences consume streaming services. According to a 2023 YouGov study, 55% of Americans check their phones often while watching TV. While this type of viewing habit is nothing new, what’s changing is how services like Netflix are adapting to it.
A deep dive by n+1 magazine into Netflix’s model states that “Several screenwriters who’ve worked for the streamer told me a common note from company executives is ‘have this character announce what they’re doing so that viewers who have this program on in the background can follow along.”
In a July 2023 interview, actor and director Justine Bateman reported that she had “heard from showrunners who are given notes from the streamers that ‘this isn’t second screen enough.’”
This type of overexpository dialogue is not new, but it is usually associated with lower-quality writing. This style of writing, becoming the standard for production, dilutes the industry and stifles creativity. With media created to be purposefully mindless, there's no room for projects with purpose.
Media literacy rates are already on the decline. According to data released in 2025 by the National Center for Education Statistics, illiteracy rates within the United States for those ages 16-24 rose by 9%. Approximately 21% of adults in the U.S. are functionally illiterate (unable to complete basic reading tasks). This is exacerbated by the mindless consumption of media. An important part of the development of critical thinking is an engagement with thoughtful, media-literate consumption.
When audiences are trained to half-watch, half-listen and half-care, the industry responds by lowering the bar. Instead of trusting viewers to follow subtle character arcs or complex narrative structures, platforms increasingly rely on repetition and over-exposition. The result is a sort of feedback loop where the more distracted viewers become, the more simplified the content becomes, and the more simplified the content becomes, the easier it is to watch while distracted.
Catering to distracted viewing may keep audiences subscribed, but it risks flattening the artistic potential of the art form. Challenging distraction asks audiences to re-engage with the act of watching and to treat a film or series as something worthy of attention rather than background noise. Investing in media with substance is both good for the integrity of art and the mentality of the audience.
In a recent interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck shared that while working with Netflix, they were instructed to restate the plot of their film four separate times so that viewers scrolling on their phones could still follow along. Damon stated, “Now, [Netflix is] like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes?’ We want people to stay tuned in. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.” This is further proof that Netflix's priority is no longer with the creation of art, but with media that can be mindlessly consumed at the expense of storytelling.
Continuing in the conversation, Affleck states that recent series like “Adolescence” are proof that good, intentional storytelling is still profitable and enjoyed by audiences. He hopes that streaming services and production teams will take note of this and realize that substantial art is still worth making.
Whether this turns out to be a more widespread industry shift or just a few isolated cases is yet to be seen, but if these trends continue, it sets a bad precedent for the quality of art that is acceptable and the level of intentionality at which media should be consumed.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.