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Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is how I can be a more conscientious and ethical consumer of visual content, specifically movies and television.
This isn't my first foray into trying to be a more ethical consumer. I recently quit using Spotify for music consumption, and so far it's been a rather rewarding and transformative experience. My consumption habits were completely changed by dropping Spotify and all for the better.
Television and movies will be more difficult though. I watch a lot of TV and it's almost all through streamers. I figure I would lay out some of my thoughts as I try and put together a plan to wean myself off the big streamers almost entirely.
I think the easiest transition will be for movies. Instead of watching movies through a streamer, I'll just rent the movie through my cable provider. The primary difficulty will be if I can only rent a movie through Amazon because fuck Amazon. But I don't foresee this being a big problem generally.
Another problem I will encounter will be trying to watch streamer exclusive movies. I may have to forgo those movies, and if I really 'need' to watch them, I'll torrent them.
TV is going to give me the most difficulty. I watch way more TV than movies. Streaming is actually extremely convenient when it comes to watching shows. Additionally, most shows I want to actually watch are streamer exclusives.
The first step I'll need to take is to find out how to rent seasons of a show. I believe iTunes had that capability back in the day, so maybe Apple still has the option through their own platform? Again, I'm trying to avoid Amazon like the plague here so that throws what's likely the easiest solution out the window. However, I'm sure my cable provider and other services can bridge the gap.
If I am going to go 'backwards' in terms of trying to figure out what to watch, I'll have to turn to reviews. With a streamer I can watch the first episode or two and make the decision whether I want to continue watching, but without that ability, I'll want to see if the show is something I'll be interested in before I rent/purchase it. The same goes for movies.
If I can't find any way to watch something I really want to watch, I don't have any qualms torrenting it. I would like to restrict how often I torrent because at the end of the day the reason I am trying to change my consumption habits is so that the creators of the content are more fairly compensated (I don't know how much this applies to television and movies versus music, but whatever, it's probably just as well to change these habits regardless.
I'm very curious how a move away from streamers will influence what television and movies I consume. When I moved away from Spotify, I found I listened to the radio way more and didn't feel the need to have every song I liked readily available to play at any moment. Music consumption became ephemeral and 'in the moment'.
I already consume more ethically produced content through Dropout.tv. Their programming is incredible and I've been a loyal subscriber since their launch 3-4 years ago. I am not averse to subscribing to independent streaming services if their content appeals to me and they aren't part of the larger group of streamers.
Ultimately, if all that changes is that I watch /less/ TV, that's a net plus.
I'm still in the planning stages of this new adventure, but I foresee changes on the horizon. I will definitely try to share my progress with y'all on my capsule.