What’s up people?
Like most of you tech-savvy people out there, I subscribe to the digital streaming service, Netflix. Honestly, I would have been a holdout if not for a promotion with my airline loyalty program for frequent flier miles. Netflix has had the last laugh, as I’ve been a member for three years since. Though the library is constantly in flux (and such, it gets harder or easier to recommend the service to someone else) I do like the fact it’s one of the few acceptable defenses you can offer someone when they ask you if you have cable.
“No, but I have Netflix.”
Since the service isn’t free and I do have automatic payments set up every month, I make it a habit to watch anywhere from 1-3 movies (or television episodes) a month no matter how busy I am. You know I have to get my money’s worth, right?
Over the past year or so, I feel as if movies I would be interested in have been appearing few and far between. I am not ragging on the content (because let’s face it, nobody put a gun to my head to join) but it’s been a challenge to find my requisite flicks a month.
Sometimes I would stumble upon the digital streaming equivalent of those $2 DVDs you see at the gas station. You know the ones. The movies you are pretty sure you wouldn’t get caught dead watching but you still take the time to check out the box. With Netflix, pressing the play button is just like checking out that box, and with it, comes mounds of regret.
I’ve seen bad car movies, “comedies” that seem to take liberties with the word, and flicks that would be considered softcore porn in my day, but it doesn’t stop me. I keep searching, like the glutton for punishment that I am.
But what about Netflix that turns us into people that would sample anything if we are bored enough? We don’t see that happen at a store like Costco. You pay Costco an admission fee just like Netflix, and even though we may nibble on a sample, we don’t come out hauling TVs because we were “bored.”
As a writer, I wish people had that same fortitude to sample things because they have access to them. I know that Amazon has something called the Kindle lending library, which is available to its Prime subscribers. Perhaps in the future a Netflix for books can really catch on this country. At the very least, we can all say:
“No I don’t have cable. I read books.”
–Flobo
Flobo Boyce 