“What should we watch, babe?”
THE ORIGINS OF “Netflix and chill” date back to 2007, although the memes and GIFs playing off of it really didn’t start flooding the internet until this past year. While “Netflix and chill” — as in, ” Wanna come over and watch Arrested Development and hang out?” — is basically just code for “Let’s hook up,” Netflix decided to do some research to find out just to what extent their ubiquitous streaming service does actually influences the dating world and affects dating habits.
Netflix teamed up with a market research company called Ipsos to survey 1,008 people in the U.S. about the relationship between their TV-watching habits and their romantic lives. The subjects involved were all between the ages of 18 and 29, and the research confirmed that people have some strong opinions on the topic, and that tastes in viewing options seemed to matter.
Of the people polled, 58% of them revealed that they included their favorite TV shows and movies in their online dating profiles, which they felt might help them get matched up with the right person.
A little over a quarter of them, at 27%, said that having the same TV tastes was a very important factor of their compatibility with another person, and a pretty significant amount of the subjects, at 13%, said that show compatibility alone was enough of a draw to ask someone out. That sounds sort of crazy — but then you consider that 58% of the participants surveyed said that they really spend time bonding with their boyfriends or girlfriends while watching Netflix, and it doesn’t sound so far-fetched.
Apparently bonding in front of the TV isn’t all fun and games. 35% admit that they have to trade show for show to keep the peace, and 65% have to engage in negotiations to keep everyone happy.
Netflix didn’t stop the research at show compatibility either, since they went so far as to ask about passwords, too. More than half of the people surveyed agreed that sharing a Netflix account with a significant other is a “big step toward a ‘serious’ relationship,” and 17% believed the password swap or account union should wait until marriage or engagement. As the popular nursery rhyme goes: “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the Netflix account password shareage.”
