A MAN has been admitted to a 'digital rehab' clinic after being diagnosed with Netflix addiction in what represents the first case of this kind on record.
The man, who has been identified as a 26-year-old unemployed male from India, checked himself into the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, The Hindu reports.
It followed a period of six months in which the jobless man spent his days streaming films and TV shows on the service in an attempt to block out the world around him.
The 26-year-old reportedly spent more than seven hours a day binge-watching Netflix programmes and movies, developing some serious side effects along the way.
It's not clear what he watched at the time.
These include eye strains, exhaustion, and erratic sleeping patterns, all of which had a negative impact on his overall health and mental wellbeing.
Thankfully he's now receiving specialised treatment at a clinic called Service for Healthy Use of Technology or SHUT.
Referred on to SHUT, the centre deals primarily with the treatment of people diagnosed with a clinical addition to technology.
"While addiction among the younger generation, aged between eight and 14 years, continues to be centred on gaming, apps such as Netflix are more for the adults, who find emotional gratification (in streaming content) as they are under constant stress," a SHUT psychologist told The Hindu.
To put his viewing habits in perspective, it's estimated that the average Netflix subscriber streams roughly 50 minutes of content per day.
That figure is likely to increase though with Netflix shelling out $8 billion on new shows and movies in 2018.
That represents a $6 billion increase on the amount spent in 2017, with the figure projected to rise even further in 2019.
