A TMOD theme titled “The story of my addiction”

THE STORY OF MY ADDICTION

It was intricately planned. The cab ride from my home to the airport takes about 45 minutes. Once in the airport, completing all the formalities should take about 30 minutes. That gives me another 60 minutes to myself. The flight from Guwahati to Bengaluru takes 3 hours. That’s 180 minutes sans any forms of disturbances. Once in Bangalore, the cab ride to the hotel gives me about another 45 minutes. And that’s all I needed to finish. Finish what I started after all the craze and hype. Any guesses what I am talking about. It’s the latest Netflix craze – the Queen’s Gambit.

I resisted the temptation to watch another series for a while. But I peaked. I saw the first episode and now I was hooked to the series. I had to watch it till the end but I did not want to waste any productive hour. So somehow I resisted for another day and scheduled to watch the entire series whilst travelling from my home in Guwahati to my hotel in Bangalore. And it was mission perfectly accomplished.

There is an abundance of OTT platforms right now and each of these platforms offers series in abundance. I am constantly fighting the urge to not waste my precious time watching another addictive series and missing out on an incredible story that the entire world has already witnessed. Too often, I give in and watch the full series in marathons.

I will share more of my experience with web series but first let’s understand how a Toastmasters meeting works. Every Toastmasters meeting is divided into three parts. The first part is the prepared speech section where members prepare a speech in advance, get it mentored and deliver the same. The second part is the impromptu session where anyone including the guest can participate. And the third part is the most important evaluation session where we will all learn how to improve ourself. Let me now invite the General Evaluator to explain his role. Please help me welcome TM Name with a big round of applause.

Once the General Evaluator has explained his role, start the prepared speech section. After this session, continue with the theme as under.

As I said, I didn’t want to get addicted to another show. Which means I had earlier seen other shows as well and am pretty sure most of you must have seen a few at least. So let’s see how common our choices are. I will tell the name of other series that I have seen and if you have seen them too, raise your hand.

The first series I remember seeing was back in college, the most popular series called FRIENDS. How many of you have seen it? After that, I saw White Collar (wait to see hands going up), Big Bang Theory, How I Met your mother. I started another series as well called HEROES but didn’t continue till the end. How about these Indian series – Scam 1992, Patal Lok, Panchayat? And of course the most recent one I saw Queen’s Gambit. Looking at the number of hands going up- it’s easy to conclude that we have all seen at least one web series and most are hooked to watching more.

Since we all like the thrill and excitement of watching web series, the next session should excite us as well – the Table Topic Session. Please help me welcome the Table Topic Master for the day TM Name.

Once the Table Topic Session is over, continue with the theme as under.

So what is it about Web Series that make them so addictive? For one it’s the very nature of stories – you want to complete what you started. A half seen series is like a half drawn circle on a paper. You still have the pen in your hand and there is an urge to finish the circle. Besides we all need closure, be it our relationship with our ex girl friend or the character undergoing a journey in a series. Like a curious cat, there is a need to know what happened in the end. But most importantly it’s the easy access. All you have to do is take out the mobile from the pocket and you are back in another world. Would you have completed any series quickly if you could watch in only on your TV or PC? Not likely. Just like I saw Queen’s Gambit while travelling, many people do so too while waiting for a bus or travelling in a cab or even lunch break during the day.

That’s my analysis of the reasons for Web Series being so addictive. I will let the General Evaluator now make an analysis of our entire session today. Please help me welcome TM Name.

Once the evaluation session is over, conclude the theme as under.

Web Series are no doubt addictive. They may make the hours go by fast but you lose time that could have been spent doing productive work, conversing with real people sitting beside you or worse, your sleep hours. Having narrated my sins just now, it may seem like preaching without practice but hey, don’t we all do that in Toastmasters once in a while.

It’s time now for awards.