I recently submitted a piece for publication to a popular website (it was accepted), and the editor noticed that I mentioned Netflix in my narrative.
“Is that because you’re part of the StreamTeam?” he asked. [pullquote]. . . the boys would spend their allotted television time flipping through channels, land on the lesser of the evils, and spend their window watching more ads than content.[/pullquote]
Truth is, I hadn’t mentioned Netflix out of any sort of contractual obligation (like this post), but rather because the service has become so ingrained in our lives, our culture, that to include it in that context was only natural. Netflix is what we do.
Typically, when I write my monthly #StreamTeam post I focus on a particular show or film, but this time I wanted to discuss one of my favorite features of Netflix and the effect it is having on our kids. Namely, the personal accounts for each of the boys.
It used to be that the boys would spend their allotted television time flipping through channels, land on the lesser of the evils, and spend their window watching more ads than content—ads that were often questionable in relation to their demographic (Seriously, what’s up with promoting horror films and boner pills during “family programming?” And now I’m old.).
Now, thanks to Netflix providing each member of the family with their own age-appropriate account the boys are spared the onslaught of kid meals and crappy toys (not to mention the more adult commercials mentioned above), and can instead spend their time watching exactly what it is that they want to watch rather than what others dictate for them.
In fact, nothing against the Internet, but knowing the boys are viewing content via their Netflix accounts rather than some search engine layered in the links of the sketchy and the corrupt means that I can relax a bit, which is nice. Also, having control of their own programming has brought a new level of independence and personal responsibility to the mix, and that’s nice, too.
We tend to watch most of our television together as a family, and the boys love that they can use their own accounts to pull up the shows we all enjoy (we’re still watching Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars). They also love that we sometimes lose track of time and they get to stay up later than their bedtime, but that’s on us, not Netflix—they can’t get credit for all the cool stuff.
Does your family utilize the personal user accounts option on Netflix?
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This post was written as part of our relationship with the Netflix #StreamTeam. Netflix has a lot of great shows for the whole family available for streaming or rental, which is nice. All opinions are our own.
