I did it. I’ve been debating with myself about this for a couple of months, and I finally did it. I cancelled my Netflix account!
I’ve always loved TV and movies. I’m a huge cinema fan. Half of my childhood we had TV, the other half we had no TV. I’ve been on both sides of the extremes. Every day after school in 4th grade, I’d come home, sit in my purple bubble chair, have a Pepsi in one hand, and a candy bar in the other (so healthy, I know) and watch a whole line up of shows. Watching stuff can be a way of escaping your reality. Which to a degree can be helpful, but can also become very unhealthy if you are detaching from life too much. People also get major FOMO about media. I think it’s all about finding the right balance for your life. I enjoy watching movies, but I needed to break the habit of just mindlessly turning on Netflix.
Here are the reasons why I quit, and maybe why you should too.
(this can totally apply to hulu plus, cable, dish etc as well)
Time:
– If you watch 2 hours of TV per day, that’s 730 hours per year (2 hours X 365 days per year), which is 30.41 DAYS per year (730 hours total /24 hours in a day). So 2 hours of TV watching would consumer ONE WHOLE MONTH of your year!! If you watch 4 hours a day, that’s two whole freaking months! Talk about a time waster.
– Live more intentionally. Life is quickly passing all of us by, and I can think of many other things I’d rather use that time for. (hobbies, a side business, quality family time, read more etc.)
Money:
– If you are paying around $10 a month for Netflix, that’s $120 per year, $600 for 5 years, and $1,200 for 10 years. That’s not including the inevitable price increases. Looking ahead 5 or 10 years seems like far into the future, but we all know it goes by incredibly fast. Imagine how much money you will be wasting if you are paying for other entertainment too! It’s not unrealistic for people to have Netflix, and Hulu Plus, AND a TV service. *shakes head slowly from side to side*
– The library has a huge selection of movies, TV shows, and documentaries that you can borrow, FOR FREE. Also, you or a family member probably already owns a lot of movies.
Content:
– Every month Netflix has slowly been removing the movies and shows I loved. I’m not interested in the new stuff they have been adding. When Stranger Things season 2 comes out, I will just go watch it at a family members house.
– I believe that everything we watch or listen to, has an effect on us. Positive or negative. A lot of what’s on Netflix now is junk. Mind numbing shows and content I believe to be inappropriate.
Overall I just needed to break the habit of watching Netflix. It wasn’t enhancing my life. If I do decide to watch something, I’m going to have to borrow something from the library, actually put a dvd in, and consciously decide if I want to watch the next episode. I think it’s horrible how Netflix auto plays episode after episode. We’ve probably all been sucked into watching too much TV from that “feature”. In the future I may decide to have Netflix again, but for now I’m going focus on enjoying my life, not fictional characters lives. (With a few exceptions, like MacGyver, LOTR, and HP haha, progress not perfection.)
I hope that you have found this info useful. Please leave a comment if you have any insights you’d like to share. Thank you for reading this.
Peace & Love
-Kayla Oliver