Watching a TV show or a new film should be a relaxing leisure activity but all too often we’re desperate to catch them before we see any spoilers.
Whether it’s an innocent article analysing the Game of Thrones finale or an obnoxious web commenter telling the world Han Solo dies in Star Wars The Force Awakens, the spoiler is very much a part of our lives now.
Luckily the Music Magpie website has put together a useful guide to spoiler etiquette in an effort to make sure people are not inadvertently ruining other people’s enjoyment.
The main conclusions of the etiquette guide are about how long you should leave it before you start publicly talking and typing about what you’ve seen.
How long should you wait before discussing spoilers?
When it comes to new films at the cinema, the guide reckons you should wait 10 days before discussing film spoilers – that aims to balance letting people talk about films and giving everyone time to watch them.
On the subject of TV spoilers, the guide is a lot more generous, only requiring people wait 33 hours after a TV show airs before discussing spoilers.
The Music Magpie article states: “Everybody likes to talk about their favourite movies and TV shows, but nobody wants to have the latest big twist ruined for them. In our fast-moving world of social media and on-demand viewing, have the rules around spoilers changed?
“We surveyed the nation to uncover the truth about our experience with spoilers. And it seems like they’re still a big problem.
“Not only can spoilers ruin the latest movie or TV show for us, they can even go as far as to damage personal relationships.”
The website’s research – based on answers from about 2,000 people - discovered that 52 per cent had been affected by spoilers they’d seen online, while 34 per cent of people had fallen out with someone they knew who spoiled something for them.
About eight per cent of people admitted posting spoilers online themselves.
What are we doing to avoid spoilers?
The article said: “According to our research, people are taking some pretty drastic measures to avoid spoilers for their favourite TV shows and movies.”
It said 46 per cent of people had avoided social media for fear of spoilers, while 18 per cent had kept out of their WhatsApp groups. And 16 per cent had unfollowed a brand or person on social media.
While 30 per cent had avoided conversations and 14 per cent had put on headphones to block out people’s talking, seven per cent even went so far as to take a cheeky sick day off work.
Which shows are the subject of most spoilers?
An analysis of spoilers on Twitter found that Game of Thrones finale had been the subject of 2,351,178 English language tweets flagged with spoiler alerts.
Other series with hundreds of thousands of spoiler tweets connected to them were The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Doctor Who and Stranger Things.
