Subscriptions To Escapism

Entertainment abounds. It’s so prolific, you can’t escape from Escapism; it’s everywhere! We unplug so much, we may need to unplug from unplugging. As I considered the options for a monthly subscription service, I was reminded how inundated we are with endless entertainment.

There is now a subscription for all forms of entertainment.

Watch

For movies and TV shows, there’s streaming Video: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, YouTube Premium, Apple TV+, and more. Binge on binging.

Listen

For music, streaming audio: Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music to name a few. Millions of songs!

Read

Like to read books? There’s kindle unlimited. How about news articles or magazines? Apple News+ and more.

Play

Are you into games? Now there’s Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass.

For a small recurring fee, you can be fed a limitless supply of consumable content, like an all-you-can-eat-buffet. Binge much? To stand out, the creators, aggregators, and distributors must up the ante, making entertainment more delicious than ever.

Stories Of Other Worlds

There’s one thing all forms of entertainment have in common: story. It has universal appeal. Whichever way you like, a tale is ready for the telling.

A single 3-minute song often tells a simple story. An epic novel is the longest form of story-telling. In between those extremes, a 2-hour movie portrays story as does a 40-hour role-playing-game. The different forms of amusement engage our brains, both thoughts and emotions, in various ways.

I like all forms of entertainment. No surprise there. Recently I tried out Nintendo’s new iPhone game called, Dr. Mario World. It’s a simple match-3 game like Candy Crush or Bejeweled. Despite the simple mechanics of the game, it’s supported by a story. Viruses (the antagonist) have invaded Mushroom Kingdom (setting), and everyone (protagonist), from Mario to Bowser, must unite against them to save the world. There’s “Man versus Nature” conflict in a setting with characters. Story!

Fiction Subscription

If you could choose only one subscription service to get stories, which one would you sign up for? I’ve been wondering about this for video: Netflix, Apple TV+, and Disney+ to name a few. If I could have just one, I still don’t know which it would be.

Movies are great, but it’s said that the book is always better. Lately, I’ve been immersed in reading. This form of storytelling engages the mind on the deepest level. Novels are excellent forms of escapism! But for the money, I’m not sure. An eBook is typically 10 dollars. At that price, you can get a month’s worth of movies and TV shows. It’s an issue of quality versus quantity, and it comes down to preference.

Amazon offers a kindle unlimited monthly subscription; I’ve never tried it. Yet I recommend reading stories and not just watching them. So your call to action is: go get you a good book. But also keep reading my blog too. 😉

Are you overwhelmed with monthly subscriptions?