• Netflix the mobile app lets you watch at 1.25x and 1.5x speeds.
• People told me they use this for reality shows like “Love Is Blind” or when they watch the gym.
• Our modern appetite for content can mean we’ve stretched our brains to watch faster and faster.

Consider the sensitive, nuanced performances of a Netflix series like “The Diplomat.” Now imagine it increased by 50%, “Chipmunks” style. This may not appeal to you, a cinematographer who enjoy the art of the flickering screen. But for some people, this is the dream: They watch Netflix at 1.5x speed.

But … why? What craven need for speed is going on in the dopamine-destroyed frontal cortex of someone who watches things at super speed? I talked to a few who do.

The most common explanation: They only use the 1.25x or 1.5x settings for some programs. Netflix’s “Love Is Blind” was mentioned several times as an example of something good to watch. I tried it on the reality show, and to be honest, I can see the appeal. It’s a show that has a lot of long, dramatic pauses and little visual action — just two people who was sitting on a couch talking At 1.25x the voices weren’t unnaturally loud, just…faster.

I asked Netflix how many people use these speed monitoring settings, but they didn’t provide the data. Netflix added the feature to its mobile app and browser versions in 2020. (The feature is not available on smart TVs.)

My understanding is that these speeders are in the minority, but I have found them to be passionate about their habit.

There are reality show viewers who just want to get things like “Love Is Blind” out of the way quickly. And others just want to be able to consume more of their TV viewing time – a feeling Nicholas Quah wrote for Vulture in defense of his own speedwatch habit.

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It can also be situational, it seems. A few people said they only do it at the gym or on the elliptical, which is the TV equivalent of listening to uptempo music while working out.

Many podcast and audiobook listeners are already listening somewhat faster speeds. (I think 1.2x is perfect for podcasting.) YouTube has a way to speed up videos to 2x, which makes sense because a lot of YouTube is just someone talking – and they’re encouraged to make their videos long. A lot of really impatient people told me that they use a Chrome extension that allows them to speed up any video – up to 5x.

I imagine our fragmented content consumption landscape has something to do with all this speed policing.

Young people are consuming content on their phones in weird and wacky ways (RIP Quibi; you were ahead of your time). I’ve found myself drawn into those”brain rot” videos on TikTok where a dramatic clip from a show plays on a split screen of someone playing with slime or playing a video game.

Our modern, insatiable appetite for video content may mean we’ve adapted and stretched our brains to watch faster and faster. That’s an optimistic way of looking at it; the other way is that our attention has shrunk to the size of a grape.

As much as I’d like to accuse these speed monitors of being monsters, I have to consider my own preferred method of watching movies: at normal speed, on the big TV – but looking at my phone the whole time.