We live in an age of constant media consumption. According to a recent Nielsen report, Americans spend over 11 hours, or nearly half of their day, interacting with digital media. This includes everything from television, movies, games, books, podcasts and music. More often than not, these pieces of entertainment are enjoyed through streaming services.

I am sure it is hard for a lot of us to imagine a time before streaming. Being able to watch our favorite shows and movies at the click of a button is not really something we stop and think about. Nowadays, it is just a natural part of everyday life.

However, this was not always the case. Before the turn of the millennium, it took quite a bit of effort to do what we now see as a simple task, such as watching a specific episode of a show.

Instead of being able to search for it on your phone, you really had to hunt it down, whether that was by looking through a TV guide and catching it as a rerun or renting a physical tape from a video store. Unless you knew exactly where to look, you were in for a journey.

When Netflix first released their online service in 2007, it came as no surprise that they were able to quickly build up a large subscriber base. For only $6.99 a month, subscribers gained access to what seemed like an infinite amount of content, no quest required.

Over the next few years, Netflix grew into an entertainment juggernaut.  Not only did their streaming library continue to expand, but they even started to produce their own shows, many of which went on to be critically praised.

Other services, such as Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, tried to compete with the giant, but they were only able to gain a fraction of the same success. They were not failures, however. Both still provided services that their competitor did not have, such as next-day streaming of new episodes, leading to many subscribing to all three.

Streaming services continued to be a convenience for general audiences until 2020, which is the year I believe they started to do more harm than good.

As we all know, 2020 was a rough year for pretty much everything, especially the entertainment industry. The pandemic shut down much of what kept Hollywood going; theaters were closed, TV and film sets were shut down and productions were suddenly halted. This caused large profit losses for many studios.

The same cannot be said for streaming, though. It was actually at an all-time high during this period. Studio executives took note of this, and a shared idea appeared in their minds. This was the start of the streaming wars. Instead of producing anything new, they instead found a way to sell older products. Disney Plus, Max, Paramount Plus, Peacock, AMC Plus and Apple TV were just some of the services born from this idea.

Now, let us get the first problem out of the way. I just listed six streaming services. If we add on the ones I named earlier, we now have a total of nine. That is far too many. If you wanted to get the basic plan for all of them, you would have to pay $61 a month or $732 a year.

Now if we do the premium plans for all of them, that would be $117 a month, which is an astonishing $1,404 a year. If we add on the average cost of basic cable, which is an additional $132, the bill is going to be $239 a month. While it is not necessary to own every available streaming service, this highlights just how quickly the cost of all of them can add up.

Also, at this point, owning multiple is kind of needed if you want a diverse library of content. Instead of everything being on Netflix, it is now spread all over the place. Let us say you wanted to watch the newest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, you have to go to Disney Plus. Do you not have Disney Plus? That is okay, you can just watch the newest “South Park” special instead; you have been really meaning to check that out anyway. You go to Max, the self- proclaimed home of the series, and you do not see it.

Confused as ever, you do a quick Google search to see what the problem is, only to discover that there is nothing wrong. The special is just on Paramount Plus, a service you do not own. You once again have to go on an adventure just to find an episode.

Now you might say to yourself, “It still beats having to get a physical copy.” I strongly disagree with this notion because at this point, it may be better to just own one.

Shows and movies are constantly bouncing around from one place to another. This is mainly due to copyright issues and exclusive deals. As annoying as this is, it does get worse. For the longest time my favorite movie, “Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse” was available on Netflix. I was able to watch the movie an ungodly amount of times all thanks to Netflix, so picture my surprise when I found out the movie was going to be leaving the platform and there were no plans for it to appear anywhere else. This destroyed me.

This forced me to pick up a blu-ray of the movie, which I complained about at first but quickly discovered it was for the best. I now own the movie forever and I do not have to worry about it disappearing one day.

Not every piece of media has the luxury of getting a physical release, however. As of recently, many streaming or streaming original content projects funded by their respective platforms have been getting deleted. This happened recently with the shows “Willow,” “Black Beauty” and “Y: The Last Man” all being removed from Disney Plus due to them being labeled as tax write offs. These three shows never got a physical release meaning it is now impossible to support them legally.

I can only imagine how the people who worked on these projects feel, seeing something they worked so hard on being erased without a second thought. The lack of respect for the creatives that work for these media giants is sickening to see.

So what does the future of streaming look like? It is honestly hard to say.

It is not going away anytime soon, but I do not think it will ever reach the same level of public approval that it once held. It still serves its original purpose as a simple way of letting people enjoy their favorite pieces of media, it is just not as easy or convenient as it once was.

Watching a simple show should not be this hard.