We have reached "Peak Subscription"

The Atlantic

Amanda Mull would like to cancel her Netflix subscription. But she also wants to watch this week's Love Is Blind reunion and the return of Drive to Survive in a few weeks. "In the 11 years I’ve had a Netflix subscription, it didn’t occur to me until a few weeks ago that I could just cancel it, or that I might want to," says Mull. "For most of my adult life, the service has functioned as something of an entertainment utility: first, because I was far too broke to afford cable, and then, once Netflix turned on its fire hose of original shows and movies, because everyone seemed to be constantly shrieking about House of Cards or Stranger Things or Tiger King. The price crept up over the years, but paying for it has felt like the cost of doing business, if that business is understanding what the hell your friends are talking about during the first round at happy hour. Then I bought a new television. If you haven’t had to do that in the past three or four years, as Netflix’s streaming competitors have multiplied and attracted tens of millions of new users, an annoying surprise might await you. One by one, you will have to recall every streaming service you currently pay for, download any apps you need that don’t come preloaded, arrange their avatars on your new TV’s main menu, remember your passwords, and slowly navigate an onscreen keyboard with the remote control’s impotent little arrow buttons. It’s an undignified process, and I got more and more irritated with myself as it went on. Why am I paying for these things? How much of this stuff do I even enjoy?"