The recent years have seen an emerging trend with regard to increased use and subscription to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime among others. There are many advantages to switching to these streaming services. For instance, it’s often less expensive than paying for cable or satellite television, viewers have the ability to watch the shows of their liking at more places than just the comfort of their home and at any time. However, even with the flexibility and the reduced costs that streaming applications allow, there are a number of issues to consider like how this new internet streaming trend is affecting our social and workplace efficiency. This commentary shall mainly focus on the negative impact the trend of streaming applications has on our society. According to a research done by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) in 2013, approximately 63% of households in the United states use a video streaming and service such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime (Matrix, 2014). The Leichtman Research Group found that 22% of these households are streaming Netflix, every week of the year. In Canada, approximately 25% of its residents have subscribed to Netflix. This figure jumps to 33% in households with teens, and it rises again to 37% in households with children under the age of twelve. Comment by Hannah Way: This should have been included in the introduction.
According to Shannon (2015), shifts in viewing habits around the world are proving an opportunity for streaming services like Netflix, which began only as a DVD rental company. Netflix’s accelerated growth as a result of the remarkable general growth of the internet has seen to its expansion in more than 50 countries worldwide. Increased popularity for streaming applications can be attributed to their flexibility in terms of access that is on television or iPhone or computer without missing a beat; streaming services like Netflix have original programs not available elsewhere, they often have better interface than cable television, and people like the freedom of choosing what to watch. In addition, charges for streaming services are lower than those for cable or satellite television. For instance, Netflix offers a basic monthly subscription of $7.99 per month. Premium subscriptions are available for $9.99 and $11.99 per month allow for high quality video feeds and multiple people can use simultaneously on the same account (Kyrnin, 2016). Netflix and other streaming media are changing viewing habits, and viewer’s expectations with regard to what, when and how they watch television. As a result, it’s not surprising that viewers are now watching more television and in large doses at a go.
However, all the glimmer of streaming services is not necessarily gold. To begin with, streaming services encourage binge watching. Users can spend dozens of hours watching shows and programs. Shannon (2015) points to Netflix’s intention to increase original programming, including new and returning series, documentaries, films and stand-up comedy specials to up to 320 hours starting from 2014. This only shows how many series, programs and documentaries are aired daily by not just Netflix but other streaming services as well. Considering that users have a choice of the programs they view, users can binge watch for hours meaning: less rest, less work, less interaction. With streaming services, people will go out less often, sleep lesser hours and keep postponing their work until they get their fill of whatever they are watching. For instance, in the summer of 2013 when Netflix released all fifteen episodes of a new season of ‘Arrested development’, reports showed that an estimated 10% of viewers watched the entire season within 24 hours (Matrix, 2014). This is not the first time neither the last that Netflix has released an entire season concurrently causing a media frenzy where huge percentage of subscribers watch the episodes back-to-back, completing an entire season in a matter of days or hours. The trend has had many of these binge watchers watching and then almost immediately taking to social media to post their reviews. One of the pitfalls to this Netflix age is that viewers are forced to go out of their way to avoid spoilers and to do so, that means taking time to watch the series when it first airs. Young viewers are likely to binge watch in order to have something to talk about with friend.
As streaming services can be accessed anywhere, at any time on any smart or internet enabled device, subscribers may be tempted to watch their favorite programs on their phone during working hours, or even use their organization’s resources like computers and internet access to watch shows online. This creates distraction for workers, promotes laziness and affects their efficiency at work. Indirectly, streaming applications affect workplace efficiency by encouraging people to stay up late. Lack of sleep or getting inadequate sleep causes irritability, affects efficiency and overall productivity. School going children are also affected, as late watching have an effect on their performance in school. The viewers also tend to spend lots of hours after watching fantasizing, talking or tweeting about the movies or series they watched, which is a distraction from work or school work.
A personal case study by Healy (2010) on Netflix in an academic library points to its limitations. She points to the general unavailability of educational media titles on Netflix. There are few films and programs available for in-class use. It also cannot offer the benefits of ownership. Owning a DVD on the shelf encourages extended, repeated, and transformative use that result in a range of benefits for both professors and students. This is especially true for items that have been archived, are rare, are difficult to find for purchase, and have more scholarly than entertainment value. Ownership also gives a measure of stability and control over a media collection that cannot be had merely through access to a service such as Netflix. From this, people draw that streaming services like Netflix serve more entertainment purpose than educational.
Another downside to streaming services is that users may tend to subscribe to more than one service say Netflix, Amazon prime or Hulu plus in order to get the full experience. This stems from the exclusivity contracts made by the streaming services with the content creators so that once a streaming service signs the program, no other service can air the same program. From this trend, we see that even though users are running away from cable or satellite T.V because of rising expenses, they still may tend to spend as much subscribing to the various services. On the same note, according to Wallenstein, Netflix announced a refurbish of its pricing plan that would see to the replacement of the hybrid offer of unlimited streaming and one-time disc rental at $9.99 a month, with two separate plans for unlimited streaming and disc rental at $7.99 each (Wallenstein, 2011). This would mean that unless a subscriber was ready to give up either, which is highly unlikely, they have to pay $15.98 per month which is a 60% increment. For large families and multiple users, it is not possible to watch more than two streams with the basic account. Thus, this means that the user has to pay higher level of subscription or create multiple accounts (Kyrnin, 2016). To top it up are the internet data charges which depend on the service provider and amount of data usage and buying streaming equipment charges in order to stream videos. In the end, subscribers tend to use as much money as they would have otherwise used on cable T.V.
Clearly, several users turn to streaming services for entertainment and the thrill of watching favorite shows, thus marginalizing other important current political, economic and social issues. In conclusion, though streaming services offer several appealing entertainment bids, people have to be keen on the hours they or their children spend streaming and how it’s affecting their performance and social life in general.
Works Cited
Healy, Ciara. "Netflix in an Academic Library: A Personal Case Study." Library Trends 58.3
(2010): 402-11. Web. (ASU Library)
Kyrnin, M. (February 4, 2016) Cutting the cord part 2 – Disadvantages of streaming only. Tech for Anyone. Retrieved from: http://www.techforanyone.com/disadvantages-of-streaming-only/
Matrix, S. (2014). The Netflix effect: Teens, Binge Watching and On-demand digital media trends. Project Muse. Retrieved from: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jeunesse/v006/6.1.matrix.html
Shannon, B. "Netflix to Complete Global Expansion by 2016.
" FT.com(2015)ProQuest. Web. 17 Mar. 2016. (ASU Library)
Wallenstein, Andrew. "Ditching Discs? Netflix Hikes Price to Offset Content Costs." Daily
Variety 312.3 (2011): 1. Web (ASU Library)
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