Realizing a Shift Change in the Way I Consume Content

It took me awhile, but I’m finally realizing what others have been talking about for so long. The way I consume content has changed – and I think it’s changed for the better.

I still get a daily print newspaper; for some reason, I cannot conceive reading my Dallas Morning News online. No, I’m not a nut who has to touch and feel the paper; far from it – I have a Kindle and have been reading online books for almost 5 years. The best part of the paper for me is the daily New York Times crossword, but I know that I can get that, too, online.

My shift change has been primarily in the way I watch television. By no means am I ready to “cut the cable” (do they have a sort of ceremony for things like that?), but I have figured out that I can watch what I want, when I want and where I want via the Internet and, most recently, Netflix.

I had a Netflix account several years ago. I even bought a Blu-Ray player that had Netflix access built in to it, so I was all geared up to watch movie after movie. That never happened. I paid the monthly fee only to find that I was watching absolutely nothing, so I cancelled my account.

Enter my son. He got Apple TV and a Netflix subscription last year for his birthday. After that, all I heard for weeks and weeks was how he was watching this show and that show. I was wondering if he stopped to shower or even eat. The first thing he watched was “Breaking Bad,” a show I never watched when it was on. Well, time marched forward and I figured out about 2 months ago that we could “share” his account, so that’s what I did.

I’m now in the 3rd season of Breaking Bad and have been watching the new dramady, “Frankie and Grace.”  Folks, this is GREAT TV, but my point, here, is that I can definitely see the day when I cut the cable. If I made a list of what I watch on a day by day basis, it’s easy to see that I can watch about 90% of the same thing online.

Apple has forced me to even read online eZines; last year, it discontinued the print version of MacWorld. I cried. I loved my MacWorld, eager to receive it each month only to find that they stacked up after 3-4 months of not being able to get to them. Now, MacWorld is only available online through an eZine format – and it is very, very slick. I can click through an issue much faster, there is less advertising and I can save articles for future reference. I love it.

Where are we headed in terms of content? I think we’re headed in a positive direction, but I also want to remain cautious, especially in counseling my clients, that print is far from dead. While I hope print never goes away, what I like best about online consumption is, again, I can get it when I want it.