Modern Independence

The other night I was sat watching The Sopranos in the living room with my family on Now TV ( it has been on my watch list for a long time). About 10 minutes in, an ad comes up. 70 seconds. I groaned, and no-one else really said anything. But it got me thinking, how we have managed to come full circle with TV. We all used to watch satellite or cable TV, and have to sit and watch the ads in between. We then had Netflix come along and liberate us from this advertising hell, for a small fee. We can watch whatever shows they had on there, ad free. Soon other companies jumped in and did the same.

Now, once we have truly wiped traditional TV channels off the playing board, we have to PAY to not see ads. This used to BE the product. TV without ads. Now you need to PAY to watch the shows WITH ads, and then pay extra to not see them! How the hell did we get here?

Convenience

Netflix went from a premium product, a luxury; getting to watch shows without ads, to a must have service. When I talk to people about budgeting, and we take a look in depth at what they are spending their money on, they can never cut their subscriptions.

” Oh but I need Netflix, I watch x show on it”

True, but you can also get a box set of just that show. I can find a box set of The Sopranos, and by the time I have watched all 8 seasons, the monthly cost of the subscription would be higher than the cost of the box set.

The convenience of having products like Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, or Xbox Gamepass, are very evident. You can get to play/watch/listen to a variety of media that maybe more expensive when bought just by itself. With Spotify you can easily make your own playlists, filter out songs you don’t like, and download it all for off-WiFi use. You don’t have to store DVD cases, CD’s, game disks etc. You can try out things and not have to pay for the full cost if you don’t like them. It is very convenient.

This convenience that comes with having subscription based services breeds dependence.

If you were to go without Netflix, what would you watch instead?

Well its easy for me to say a DVD, but how many people got rid of all of their DVDs, or DVD player. How many people can be bothered to hookup their devices to the back of the TV or monitor to use them? People have gone so long without collecting any of this media that they would have to fork out a lot of money to get started again.

If you didn’t have Spotify, how would you listen to music?

MP3 players do exist, and are fairly cheap. But again, who still has CD’s? Who still has disk drives on their PC’s to rip them to their library and upload to their MP3?How many people still know how to do that?

But what about my Gamepass? How can I play the games I like?

Well, you can buy them! And I know how tempting Gamepass is. I myself started getting pretty into Stalker 2. Only for Microsoft to remove it from the Gamepass. So I needed to pay $35 to buy it from the store. So if I had just been paying the 21.99 for Gamepass for 2 months just for Stalker 2, I would have paid more for it then the cost of the game, and then STILL no be able to play it!

One thing that comes with all of these forms of media, is most are digital. So again you have the convenience of storage, great. But we KNOW that you don’t actually own these titles. Unless you can hold it in your hand, it is not yours. You are dependent on the store owners keeping that product on their platform. Should it leave, your ownership leaves with it.

Once you get too deep into these easy to use convenient services, it can be hard to get back out.

The same can be said for cashless payments. It is is easy and convenient to use your Google wallet to pay for things. but without it most people don’t have a way to pay for things. They are dependent. Most don’t carry cash. So your ability to pay for things is dependent on whatever you use to make these cashless payments.

So if they want more data from you? You give it. If they want to take a little of the top for every payment? They do.

These conveniences are everywhere, and trap you into having to use certain services or products. Hell, even HAVING these things makes you dependent. I know myself, it is very easy and convenient to have my social life be based around playing online games. But you take that away, and no-one has developed any interests outside of the screen, or social skills sometimes. So having the Xbox becomes a must. Having the Phone, and Instagram and Facebook becomes a must. Convenience has stripped away the alternatives. Its a classic rug pull.

There are no free dinners. Everything comes at a price.

With media, its a financial cost, or privacy cost ( free doesn’t mean they are not making money from you). Spending, its a privacy cost. And with all these things, it is a lifestyle cost.

What do I mean, lifestyle cost?

Well all of these things take away from you having a healthy fulfilling lifestyle.

If you didn’t have your social life based around a screen, then you would spend more time doing more fulfilling activities outsides, in parks, pubs, social clubs, arcades, sports clubs, cinemas, restaurants.

If you have all your media digitally, it takes away from the excitement and experience of going to the store, and picking out the DVD you want, interacting with the workers, seeing the cute dog peeing on the lamppost outside the store, hearing the birds tweet and seeing the blue sky and funny shaped clouds.

If you order in, say from Uber eats or Deliveroo, you’re taking away the skill development of cooking, picking out groceries, trying out recipes, eating good nutritious food. Even if you want fast food, going to the drive through is still more of an enriching experience.

I feel like I have illustrated enough, how convenient things breed dependence in various areas of life, and that they strip away from the human experience, not add to it.

So?

Well, stop using them, dummy. As more and more people subscribe to these things, the less and less options there will be outside of them. So you need to go get a DVD player and some DVDs. A stereo and some CD’S. Go and buy some ingredients for those enchiladas, go play pool at the pub and listen to the political advice of some weary old boy. Make sure that there are ways for you to spend time with people that have NO MIDDLEMAN. Going for a walk, playing football at the park, a trip down the beach all are subscription free.

Life, is subscription free.