Documentaries;

Perhaps my ultimate guilty pleasure… (even above chocolate)

I’ve always taken an immense interest in documentaries from a young age, I believe that they are a fun, engaging and innovative way to learn. Everyone takes in information differently, it has been shown that images associated with information helps the information to be retained better.

You can find documentaries on anything ranging from individual case studies to a general topic. They help further interests and are easy accesses to knowledge that isn’t necessarily taught in schools. 

For example, I absolutely adore Louis Theroux’s documentaries, as he comes up close to real life situations that people have heard of, but for the audience to visually witness it has an unexplainable impact. This impact is so powerful that it can change your opinions and motivations in life. I have personally experienced this unexplainable impact countless of times, it has made me re-evaluate my own actions in life.

There is always a documentary out there for someone, after asking around I’ve found that they aren’t just popular in my life, but also in the majority of other people’s lives too.

It led to me to wonder, what was it that made them so captivating?

I gathered some information on people’s view points on what they actually like about documentaries, the answers were fairly similar which is interesting considering that they were taken from a varied age range. For me, this solidifies how documentaries well and truly are for everyone and anyone.

There are a lot on surreal circumstances, which I found many people find enjoyable to watch lives completely different to their own. A good storyline, strong depth of information and having a good meaning behind it is essential to a good documentary, according to everyone that I questioned. 

The way a documentary is structured is like being taken through a story, whether it’s a true story or simply a conspiracy theory, it still takes you on an experience of a completely different world, all from the comfort of your own bed.

Quite a few people mentioned the Ted Bundy Tapes as a plausible representation for a good documentary. One friend of mine explained how it was such a juxtaposition for her, it’s not the actual murder he committed that’s fascinating; it’s his upbringing and trying to source out what made his cogs click the wrong way and send him down the psycho spiral. 

As you may be able to tell, I am quite passionate about documentaries and highly encourage people to engage in watching more if possible. They have helped improve my knowledge on the world on oh-so-many topics that I would never have known about. In addition, they also spread useful awareness to the entire population that may not have been originally seen as information that needed to be shared.

Now, stop reading this article and go watch a documentary on anything that even remotely interests you! Learn… from the comfort of your bed!