Streaming in the Time of the Plague: Covid-19, Prosthetic Sociality and Comfort TV

Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, streaming television subscriptions and media consumption surged at an unprecedented scale in the U.S. While audiences turned to streaming TV to cope with the lockdown, streaming platforms experimented with content delivery and packaging to adapt to emerging viewership trends. In this mixed-method study that combines surveys and focus groups with undergraduate students we found that students used streaming media both alone and with others to structure space and time and navigate life under enforced domesticity. We argue that under such conditions, audiences engaged with streaming media as a form of prosthetic sociality—a substitute for in-person interaction that helped maintain a sense of connection and routine.