Libraryflix - a better option?

I loved this witty sign - made by the librarians at my local library.

It makes a good point. If I want a choice of hundreds of movies or documentaries - the local library is a great option.

Great for the minimalist

Most movies we watch just once. In most cases owning movies is a waste of space. The great thing about the library is that there's a built-in deadline to return them and get them out of the house.

Great for the money-saver

At $0 per month movies don't come cheaper than that.

You have to carry it home

That doesn't sound like an advantage, but it is. An all-you-can-eat restaurant tempts us to over-eat. A $10/mth all-you-can-watch deal can turn into a binge-watching session that eats away our whole weekend.

Don't get me wrong. Value for money is great. Spending less money means we don't have to trade away so much of our time for dollars. We can use that time for other things. For a more meaningful life. But unless your life goal is movie-watching, an unlimited buffet of movies can steal your time.

The lure of freebies

My work colleague was coming to the end of a streaming service free trial. She said it wasn't worth the $9/mth and was going to cancel it. A month later she's talking about a new series. What? She'd won a 3-month extension to the free trial - so kept it.

I'm curious that for something not worth $9, we're still willing to give up 20 hours of our time to watch it. No offence to my workmate, it's probably much the same with me and televised sport.

In short

Try out your "Library-flix". You can get great value without using heaps of your space, your money or your time.

Comments

Offline

Yes, by now we all know that smartphones and social media are doing us harm. How do we harness the benefits of them without the destructive effects. The book Offline makes 5 main points. If you've only got a minute, here they are: The addictive design keeps us on online platforms longer. The 'brain hacks' disrupt our brain's ability to function. Humans need "real" interaction, and social media does not deliver this. Technoference (digital over-riding direct interactions at the play ground, coffee shop, dinner table) result in something valuable being lost. Speed of the transformation is astounding. 75% of people are connected, with almost half using social media. We have no idea what the long-term effects of this real-life experiment will be. Going a bit deeper, here are some of my highlights from the book. So what are side-effects? According to various studies, the effects can be grouped into the physiological (poor sleep, neural re-wiring, and increased str...

Big motivator for small living

It's been a while between posts here - mainly because we've been moving house. It's been a real motivator for downsizing. Packing each and every item we owned, really makes me wish there were fewer of them. Moving everything from the old apartment to the new one made me envious of those people who live in a "tiny house on wheels". For them moving house simply means towing it to a new location. No packing required. The whole process has reaffirmed our commitment to owning less stuff. So we're going to be intentional about downsizing. It will be an ongoing activity. My environmental heart couldn't stomach a spontaneous dumping of things into the garbage, but it's also more fun this way. Selling things online brings in some handy pocket money. Giving items away is also a great community activity, whether it is to friends and family, to charity or to people in the neighbourhood. I'm looking forward to it as a lifestyle rather than a task to do....

Don't dump on charities

Netflix causes mass dumping. Here's an alternative. January is usually a big month for physical donations to charity. In 2019 it's been over-the-top (literally) as charity donation bins have been overflowing with items. The Netflix series "Tidying Up" by famous declutterer Marie Kondo (see her book ) has inspired many to declutter their homes. But in the process they've cluttered the streets. What's so bad about donating? When the bins overflow the extra items are thrown away. Having been in the weather, the rain and on the ground, they are classified as contaminated and cannot be sold. To make it worse, much of what fills the bins is not good enough to sell, and is also dumped. Bad donations hurt charities 13 million dollars. That's how much it costs charities to deal with all the junk we dump on them - 60,000 tonnes a year. Lifeline says half its stores have stopped accepting donations. We might think we're helping, but that's a lot ...

But wait... there's less!

Search This Blog