Regret Flix

Two years ago, I got rid of cable television. I decided I did not need it anymore. Much of what I watched was mediocre entertainment. The only reason I watched anything was because I had no other way to kill time at the moment. That’s all it was to me. Killing time – time that deserved justice.

Regrettably, I decided to keep Netflix. And over the past couple of years, I’ve watched a few remarkable movies, some great documentaries, and hysterical TV shows. The rest of it was all drivel.

You know - there is a running joke about getting to the end of the Internet.... having seen everything there is to see.  I feel like I got to that point with Netflix.  They just made it too easy to press play. Still, it became more and more laborious to do so. I woke up two years later, finding myself excited watching consecutive seasons of Desperate Housewives.  Trust me: I admit to this with great fear and trepidation. I had had enough. I had hit rock bottom. And so birthed was the name: Regret Flix.  Now I know that I might be risking suit for defamation of characters (yes, plural), but the recent release of Arrested Development was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I am now officially sans television. To me, the act of watching Netflix embodied American culture.  Too many of us sit around and read, watch, or listen to things that other people create.  We do this sort of thing because we need to be stimulated. Our senses crave stimulation. The problem is that we do not want to create the stimulation for ourselves.  We want to do as little work for as big a reward as possible. And it’s a real infraction against humanity to allow this to keep us down. So, I’m here to help split the difference, and I'm not talking about the $8.47 per month. 

What is I am talking about is this: the level of distraction we face is tantamount to oppression. No one is completely unfettered. In our defense, it’s not something we even realize is happening. Companies have literally invested billions in reaching and maintaining new audiences, fans, and customers.  We have stopped questioning our own incentives. We are automatons. 

Technology adapted to the market, changed the market, and now owns the market, which forces efficient individuals to take shape or be left behind. This makes many people mere drones that lost their true identity years ago.  And years, in today’s terms, means little more in time than a road trip down Technology Lane.