SALT LAKE CITY — Online streaming is changing how we watch TV. Instead of tuning in to favorite shows at the same time every week, viewers — especially millennials — now prefer to binge-watch them, meaning they watch several episodes back to back.

The majority of viewers feel no remorse for spending hours at a time watching TV, and some even plan their binges, making this a fad unlikely to slow down anytime soon.

To keep up with the trend, streaming technology is growing smarter and more prevalent. Within the last month or so, YouTube unveiled a new streaming service, and Ford released an SUV with TV-streaming capabilities.

But what is driving this obsession with media consumption, and what does it say about the people who binge? The answer is, unsurprisingly, complex.

A (purposeful) shift in viewing habits

Regular cable packages have been losing popularity for a while as companies like Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and HBO continue to expand their streaming services and offer more technology for on-the-go watching.

This, in turn, has forced cable providers to expand their services. Many have created apps and other devices that help viewers stream shows on both their home TVs and their handheld devices. Thanks to this market competition, modern viewers have the flexibility of watching a show whenever and wherever they choose.

In addition to being supremely accessible, binge-able TV often has a similar draw as online clickbait. Viewers engage because the reward centers in their brains are activated when curiosity is satisfied.

It’s the reason you’re more likely to binge-watch shows with cliffhanger endings (think Stranger Things) and why people with less self-control find it harder to stop watching. The people behind TV shows are aware of this trend, and they’re now creating and delivering content with the goal of making you want even more.

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Netflix reveals which shows we binge watch the most

Netflix has made a name for itself by allowing users to spend hours (and sometimes days) binge-watching their favorite shows.

Netflix, for instance, has released some information on what people like to binge-watch. The company created the Netflix Binge Scale, which shows the most popular shows to “savor” and the shows people are more likely to “devour.”

At one end, there are irreverent comedies like Arrested Development, which people generally watch for less than two hours at once. Thrillers like Breaking Bad are the most binge-watched shows and fall at the opposite end of the scale.

With this kind of information, the service can manufacture — and potentially even automate — content specifically designed to encourage more binge-watching.

The cultural context of binge-able content

As questionable as the motives behind binge-able content may be, there are a lot of interesting connections when it comes to shows groups choose to binge.

One recent study of the most popular HBO shows by state suggests that where you live may play a role in what you like to binge-watch. Frontier Communications teamed up with CableTV.com to analyze Google trends around how environment seems to affect people’s binge-watching preferences.

As it turns out, those living in Louisiana are big fans of Treme, a show that centers on New Orleans culture. The same seems to be true of states with a history of religion-driven polygamy: Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming are most interested in Big Love.

New Yorkers prefer Sex and the City, and Californians prefer Silicon Valley. With correlations like that, there’s a powerful argument to be made that binge-able content and streaming technology are facilitating conversations around culture and community that might not happen otherwise.

The shows we’re obsessed with will change, and the technology we use to watch them will keep improving — but binge-watching TV is here for the long haul. So rather than treating binge-watching as a guilty pleasure, it’s certainly worth taking a closer look at the content we care about — and why we want to consume it so voraciously.

Sage Singleton is a safety expert, through SafeWise. She enjoys teaching people safe lifestyle habits to increase family and community security. She’s also a freelance writer with a passion for literature and words. Sage has written for a variety of audiences ranging from government sites to lifestyle magazines. Some of her work has been featured on sites like MSN, Bustle, Thought Catalog and Porch. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, learning French, training for marathons and planning weddings.

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