It's much cheaper to have one or two at a time and rotate through them. I have a $20 per month budget for it. But the services piss me off, charging and then packing in the ads.

Remember when we were told the internet would be free to everyone?

How long did that last? Less than 5 years?

and I've house/dog sit for friends and catch up there.. Just avoid anything new.

We do the same. YouTube without ads is worth it for us at $29.99 per month. Everything else its transactional and based on a “want.” We love watching old movies on Tubi which are free.

They raised the price by $2 a month! I was already unhappy with them for not standing up to the Ellison hostile takeover of Warner Bros. (all media monopolies suck, but at least they would be better than the *rump stump licker), and with the steady stream of slop Netflix currently has, it was an easy choice for me to cancel (for like, the 20th time).
Currently, I have the Disney/Hulu/HBO bundle ($31). Not sure what happens to HBO if Paramount buys Warner though.
I do watch a LOT of streaming, and zero network/cable tv. With all the crap in the world now, I spend most free time I have escaping into binge watching fantasy and sci-fi.

so streaming is a preferable option, esp. since I can use tablet and not be forced to sit in one spot to watch something.Plus no ads!!!!! I can watch anything on my own schedule, at less cost than any decent cable choice.
Binging on all of Yellowstone was marvelous...

The scenery is gorgeous and the characters are interesting. It was recommended to me by a friend and now I'm picking up Paramount to watch the spinoffs. Taylor Sheridan is a talented fellow.

I wonder if this campaign from Scott Galloway has anything to do with the decline? I try to rotate my subscriptions, but have been only a little successful in managing this. When I heard about "Resist and Unsubscribe", I was motivated to dump almost all of them.

Start reading books and telling tall tales by candlelight.

Are these something new?

And what are...candles?

substance called paper. Did not require power, but could occupy a great deal of space.

candles. .another strange substance, a mini--fire by which one could read the aforementioned books.

Depending on what you're looking at.

telling me I needed to be more aware of the somewhat dangerous surroundings. Somehow, I don't think they ever stopped the people with earbuds orr headphones. I, at least, could hear what was going on around me, as well as see over whatever I was reading.

system at my fingertips, including ALL the magazines (I had NO idea there were so many cooking and gardenings magazines!) No clutter, no having to worry about returning overdue books in bad weather. . .And when one wants something new to read at 3am, it is easily found and delivered.

That just prompted me to recall that famous scene at the end of Jim Carey's classic "The Cable Guy" after he falls from the tower onto the satellite dish and that knocks the cable out all over town -

But the interruptions for commercials make it aggravating. I don't want to buy the subscription service. It's all going down the tubes. Billionaire business owners don't want to pay employees anything never mind minimum wage that hasn't been raised for who knows how many years. republiCON dystopia.

Last edited Thu Apr 9, 2026, 01:39 PM - Edit history (1)

and it's tremendously difficult, for example, to find a single streaming service that covers what I want. For example, let's say I want to watch the Packers season of football. I'm in Texas so I need something like Sunday Ticket to get many of the games. But it doesn't have all the games. Monday night and occasional Thursday nights might be on different streaming services. It gets frustrating very quickly. I think we were better off with 900 channels on cable that we paid once a month. Currently I cycle in and out with Fubo. I cancel when I'm not watching much and reactivate when there's a series of games I want to see.

Free from the library.

There are digital services one can download from home and many libraries still keep actual DVDs people can check out and take home for a week or two.

Our library offers bicycles, 'adventure packs' for people who want to experiment with this thing called 'outdoors'! There are also 'culture passes' for those who want to take the kids to see museums and other educational exhibits.

Once read Public Libraries being referred to as 'the community's living room' and knew the phrase to capture the modern library systems. People need to check out their libraries if 'it's been a while'. Support library services, attend library board meetings, let them know you are paying attention, consider running for your local board if they are not or step up to city and country government office to ensure library services continue to meet needs and be the community's living room.

Thank your librarians, they woke hard to protect your rights and access to information. Then tip your tri-corn to the wisdom of Doctor Franklin as you utilize library services.

plus magazines, community meeting rooms, cool things for kids, a "Friends of the Library" book sale, plus staff I have known for years.

one of my favourite t-shirts reads, "Librarians: The original search engines"

In the 80s - video. 1999 - DVD. Then streaming.

Our minds went to mush. All our problems can't be solved in a 48 minute sitcom and a movie.

it's about escaping them for that 48 minutes....though, it's usually 42 these days for an hour long show.

I started to cut down on streaming services because they are all increasing prices well beyond inflation and adding or increasing ads. They were once touted as a cheap alternative to cable without ads. I don't trust them anymore and there's always some plan around the corner to cut service and raise prices again.

I loved going into those stores. Now I can't even see movies in Best Buy and Target, they pulled them.

For me, it never left. VHS, DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K UHDs for life!

I still have a stack of movies I used to use to demo my home theater back 30 years ago (before DVDs) to have Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. My poor player is throwing error messages now.