I'm 42 with 2 daughters (ages 9&10) and a lovely wife. We have no cable or local channels. However, we do have Netflix ($8), Amazon Prime (about $8.25), and YouTube Red($10) for a total of $26.25, down from the $125 we used to pay through Comcast. We're saving almost $1,200 a year. I honestly struggle to include Amazon Prime because we pay for this service for the shipping benefits, not for the ability to stream entertainment. I'm including it for the sake of being complete though. We also stream content from my PC to all areas of the house, including phones/ipads, gaming consoles, and TVs.
PROS
1. I used to sit down and surf, wondering "I wonder what's on?". Now I sit down and think "This is what I'm watching tonight". It's a subtle difference, but in practice it is significant. This has altered my family's entire approach to media consumption.
2. NO ADS. Not even one. All the media I have consumed for the past several years hasn't had a single advertisement. Just think about that for a second. Do you know how fucking awesome and weird that is? I was at a friend's house and was blown away by how frequent and annoying ads are on TV. After having YouTube Red, watching people wait 5-10 seconds to skip through ads seems so tedious. I am completely used to never seeing a single ad, ever.
3. All of our content is custom delivered to us. If you want to watch a horror flick, look at the selections available. If you want to binge a new show, go right ahead. The episodes autoplay and also skip the intros and credits! My children each have their own playlists and saved series.
4. Watching YouTube is amazing and I can stream it anywhere I want. I get most of my music playlists through the service and have about 50 channels I am subscribed to ranging from my various hobbies to history and some really off the wall one of a kind stuff from all over the world. Content comes out so fast, I cannot keep up even if I tried. I find new stuff to enjoy every time I look. Being able to instantly watch content basically custom made for you cannot be understated. It's a total game changer for my family.
5. I haven't watched the news in over 4 years. I read my news online from various sources, as it's announced. It's really a load off my mind. I read about the news when I am ready and able to dedicate time to it, not as a passive input.
6. Everything is a TV. No cable required.
CONS
1. I miss the Super Bowl every year. Well, I missed seeing it the first year or 2, now I'm pretty much entirely out of sports. (With no ads, I don't even know who is playing who, the scores, or anything) I feel bad when friends/family are like "can we watch the game?" and I'm like.....no sorry ---- small plus here is that more and more things are being streamed. We watched the Macy's Day parade this year on Thanksgiving Day as it was streamed live on YouTube. Same with things like elections and such.
2. When my modem is being an asshole, it sucks. Getting out of my bed to go reset the modem that decided to shit on us during the last 30 minutes of our movie is a PITA.
3. When the Internet is out, bye bye shows. At least I still have all the stuff on my PC to stream. I mean, cable outages happen too, but not as often in my experience.
-----Who else has cut the cord and what effect has it had on your media consumption habits?-----
PROS
1. I used to sit down and surf, wondering "I wonder what's on?". Now I sit down and think "This is what I'm watching tonight". It's a subtle difference, but in practice it is significant. This has altered my family's entire approach to media consumption.
2. NO ADS. Not even one. All the media I have consumed for the past several years hasn't had a single advertisement. Just think about that for a second. Do you know how fucking awesome and weird that is? I was at a friend's house and was blown away by how frequent and annoying ads are on TV. After having YouTube Red, watching people wait 5-10 seconds to skip through ads seems so tedious. I am completely used to never seeing a single ad, ever.
3. All of our content is custom delivered to us. If you want to watch a horror flick, look at the selections available. If you want to binge a new show, go right ahead. The episodes autoplay and also skip the intros and credits! My children each have their own playlists and saved series.
4. Watching YouTube is amazing and I can stream it anywhere I want. I get most of my music playlists through the service and have about 50 channels I am subscribed to ranging from my various hobbies to history and some really off the wall one of a kind stuff from all over the world. Content comes out so fast, I cannot keep up even if I tried. I find new stuff to enjoy every time I look. Being able to instantly watch content basically custom made for you cannot be understated. It's a total game changer for my family.
5. I haven't watched the news in over 4 years. I read my news online from various sources, as it's announced. It's really a load off my mind. I read about the news when I am ready and able to dedicate time to it, not as a passive input.
6. Everything is a TV. No cable required.
CONS
1. I miss the Super Bowl every year. Well, I missed seeing it the first year or 2, now I'm pretty much entirely out of sports. (With no ads, I don't even know who is playing who, the scores, or anything) I feel bad when friends/family are like "can we watch the game?" and I'm like.....no sorry ---- small plus here is that more and more things are being streamed. We watched the Macy's Day parade this year on Thanksgiving Day as it was streamed live on YouTube. Same with things like elections and such.
2. When my modem is being an asshole, it sucks. Getting out of my bed to go reset the modem that decided to shit on us during the last 30 minutes of our movie is a PITA.
3. When the Internet is out, bye bye shows. At least I still have all the stuff on my PC to stream. I mean, cable outages happen too, but not as often in my experience.
-----Who else has cut the cord and what effect has it had on your media consumption habits?-----
