One of the things I find annoying about recent times is how nothing at all is free anymore. It’s as if you can’t get any decent service for free, you just have to pay for things. The era of subscription is choking us all out, and these companies are taking no chill as they keep charging us for everything. Every few years, they increase the prices, and because we need them, we have to pay.
It’s not a welcome development, and the only people who really benefit from this inflation are the owners of the companies and the government (through taxes). But for everyone else, it’s just so frustrating! And most of the time, these increments come with no form of improvement to the products. You’re simply paying more for the same thing in a slightly different package. And that’s even when they try to be creative.
There was a time when the lowest Netflix plan was just around 1k-ish, not too sure anymore. But now, it has more than doubled the price. Back then, you could share your passwords with family members even in different states. But now, it’s more expensive, and you can’t even share your passwords with family who don’t live in the same house as you. Everyone must have separate accounts and make separate subscriptions.
It only got worse, and yeah, while they still have millions of movies in their libraries, it can still be frustrating to pay all that money, and still not have access to all the movies on the internet. Imagine having to subscribe to Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Apple+, HBO, Starz… and the list just goes on. All of them are in their tens of dollars a month. So, if you want to have access to all movies, both old and new, you’d have to spend around $100 give or take on a subscription alone. Can’t there be a single subscription that’ll give everyone access to all movies? That one, if we even pay 20k per month, it’ll be worth it!
This is also similar to the cable industry, which is also dying a slow and painful death, especially here in Nigeria. There was a time when cable was bae! Almost everyone had it, and it allowed them all to feel too big. Now, streaming platforms have kicked them back. Cable only shows old movies, and many times, their original content is not really impressive. Only specific shows make people subscribe. For many people, they don’t see the point in subscribing to it when they might never end up watching it due to how boring it is. We have clamored for a pay-per-view system, where you don’t subscribe, you simply use it at your own pace. Kind of like how the prepaid meter works. But they’ve been quiet about that.
Sadly, this is not just with the world of movies. Everything that used to be free is now up for sale. Listening to music is now a paid activity; if not, you won’t really enjoy your music. Editing tools, graphic designs, verification badges, and using ChatGPT… everything is now paid for. Nothing is free anymore. The more you look at it, the more you see that we’re going to be paying for a lot of things for a long time to come. It’s a painful truth, but it is what it is.
We’re slowly moving into a capitalistic world, where every single thing will be motivated by money. Not long ago, I heard of a popular car brand that plans to offer subscriptions based on the horsepower of its cars. So, without the subscription, you won’t have access to the full horsepower. Soon, we’d find ourselves paying for everything. We’ll subscribe for air, for water, even for worship. We’ll keep paying and paying.
Because apparently, it never stops!
Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, I would love to know what you’re thinking. Till we meet in the next post.
N.B: All images used in this post are mine. The thumbnail was designed using Canva.
