Classification of Continue Watching Shame
A streaming platform's Continue Watching row has become an archaeological record of half-finished intentions, arranged in reverse order of the guilt they generate.
Classification of Continue Watching Shame A Microfiction in Five Episodes
Episode 1: The Row
There is a row on the streaming platform called Continue Watching. It sits at the top of the home screen, above the recommendations, above the new releases, above the curated section titled "Because You Watched" that surfaces titles related to something watched eighteen months ago and has not recalibrated.
The Continue Watching row has nine items. Most of them have progress bars that stopped between twenty and sixty percent completion. One of them shows a progress bar at 98%, which means an ending was watched, or the closing credits were skipped, and the show was returned to but not officially completed. One percent of progress remains and has remained for six weeks.
Episode 2: The Taxonomy
The show paused at 43 minutes into episode 3 is not unwatched. It is mid-watched, which is a worse status, because mid-watched means a decision was made and then reversed without formal notice.
The documentary paused at 12 minutes was started at midnight when the person was not in a documentary state of mind. The comedy series was watched correctly for two episodes and then abandoned during a third episode that seemed to be going in a different direction. The third episode has been waiting to be returned to for four months. The third episode does not know this.
Episode 3: The Shame Architecture
The Continue Watching row is a roster of commitments that were made during a different mood and are now being evaluated by a person who is not in that mood. The mismatch is not solvable by watching more television. It can only be solved by being in the mood, which is not schedulable.
In the second year of pandemic viewing, the average user has more content available than at any previous point in their life, more time than they expected to have, and a reduced capacity to commit to anything longer than forty minutes.
Episode 4: The Remove Option
A title can be removed from Continue Watching. This option exists. It is available. Using it requires acknowledging that the show will not be finished, which is a cleaner outcome than leaving it in the row, but feels like a formal ending when the watch was not a formal beginning.
Nobody removes items from Continue Watching. They accumulate.
Episode 5: The Resolution
The 98% show gets finished on a Wednesday. The progress bar disappears from the row. A new recommendation appears to fill the space. The recommendation is for a show with four seasons, each containing ten episodes.
The first episode is started. Progress reaches 31% before the screen is locked. The show appears in Continue Watching the following day.
Nothing ends.