The extraordinary power of Squid Game and Traitors and how it's changing us

Cash-strapped and fighting for survival? Paranoid, unable to trust anyone and prepared to backstab your way to the top for financial reward? Or merely dabbling in learning South Korean and googling Claudia Winkleman’s outfits? It could be that your choice of TV programme is changing the way you behave.

We might think we just sit back on the sofa in a daze and watch the latest reality show but what we consume on the screens is having an effect on our daily lives. With the long dark nights leaving us marooned on our sofas and fresh seasons of Squid Game and The Traitors here to entertain us, it’s easy to find their influence seeping into our internet habits.

I know I can’t get through an episode of Traitors without searching online for Winkleman’s ensembles, from cashmere jumpers and tweed capes to frilly-sleeved blouses and velvet tuxedos and shrieking “how much?” while my daughter goes online and looks up how to enter us for the show (“I’m putting you down as wanting to be a Faithful, you’re rubbish at lying, and we’d have to be honest about being related because we make that same squeak noise when we get a fright”).

Squid Game has proved so popular that some young Scots have been trying to learn Korean to watch it in its original language (Picture: Sebastian Reuter) | Getty Images for Netflix

Subber or Dubber?

Also it’s come to my attention that young fans of Squid Game are divided on social media (because it has to be a binary choice, one or the other, for or against, no nuance or can-I-think-about-that-for-a-bit-and-get-back-to-you, so we can have a good confrontation, right?) into opposing camps of Subbers and Dubbers. Subbers are those who watch the show in Korean with subtitles on, while Dubbers go for the English version spoken by actors.

According to Subbers, that’s the best way to watch because you’re getting the raw emotion, the tension and panic in the voices of the characters as they speak and perform, whereas dubbed is devoid of the authenticity of a genuine reaction – it’s not ‘real’, so to speak.

But isn’t it all in Korean, making it somewhat difficult to follow? Indeed, which is where Duolingo comes in and a whole generation turns away from learning Spanish, so they can live it large in Magaluf, in favour of Korean so they can follow Squid Game in its original form. The time poor among us will just have to be Dubbers, but don’t expect me to argue about it on social media because I’m too busy googling Claudia’s claes.

Traitors beats Squid Game for me

The Traitors effect sees the brands supplying Winkleman’s outfits’ sales soar (many of them Scottish since it’s filmed in the Highlands and if there’s one thing we do well it’s knitwear, tweed and tartan) as better-heeled viewers snap up her clothes from websites as they watch.

Meanwhile down on the high street, the trickle-down effect also brings a bonus for brands selling the ‘can’t afford the original, here’s a cheaper version that’s almost the same from a distance, across a glen in a Scotch mist’.

So it’s a win-win for traders and textiles, and if either show has an effect on my habits, it’ll be Traitors that beats Squid Game, as I opt for ‘vintage’ cashmere and pre-loved pullovers. Because there are only so many ways you can wear a track suit.