Welcome to the new year and a new list of things to get through. Do you ever find yourself thinking “where did the day go?” so many tasks, so little time.
Well I did recently and decided I had enough and put a time tracker on myself (RescueTime)
Well was I surprised to see what I got up to and it wasn’t all the hard slog I tried hard to convince everyone it was.
I would spend time for project work, research, design work, reports which were understandable but then when I was on the phone, I have a habit of watching an odd video or 2 while chatting with a client. Sometimes after I had hung up, I had to watch the end and then another was prompted in my feed and so on. Get the idea?
Of course being the cat tragic I am, had to be cat videos. Once tallied up, it was 2 hours and 33 minutes worth a week. Cats being scared of cucumbers, sliding in the snow, stealing the dogs’ bed, long-lost reunion with the owner, speaking to the birds, hanging from the ceiling fan, looking mean or taking a bath. Love the ones where they drink upside down from the faucet. Admit it – you have seen them too.
So then I decided to research – Why do we watch so many cat videos?
Well, it turns out to be Therapy. I am not kidding you.
Did you know there are over 93,600,000 cat videos on Youtube? True!
A professor from Indiana University’s Media school recruited almost 7,000 people to use in a study. Amongst other questions surrounding animals, she focused on the emotions and moods of people before and after watching these cat videos.
Overwhelmingly, respondents said they felt a lot happier after watching the videos and experienced fewer negative emotions of anxiety, sadness and guilt.
In fact, after watching a cat video, people experienced a similar response to playing with a therapy cat. “Most of the literature on pet therapy shows that it reduces anxiety and can improve people’s mood,” says Prof Jessica Myrick.
In the future, Myrick speculates, pet videos could have a bona fide psychological benefit for people who live far from therapy pet options or are allergic to animals.
So now I know – it is not because I am addicted to them or wasting time – it is therapy. Imagine being prescribed 5 cat videos a day in order to give up smoking?
So that explains why I watch – puts me in a better mood.
So now let me just watch one more before knock off time……….