Dear Netflix,

Hey. How are you doing? You don’t seem well and I guess I’m just worried about you. We’ve been pals for a few years now and I gotta say, you’ve changed.

I know you’ve been very open about how your personality is shifting with extra features, new companies, different pricing and it’s good that you care enough to make sure we know what you’re doing. It really is. But honestly, you should take it down a notch.

I’m not angry at you, I just want you to settle down.  I’ve been more than satisfied with you over the years and I’m actually surprised the raise in price hasn’t come sooner. You provide what’s really an amazing service that’s definitely worth the money no matter how many blogs will whine about it.  The price isn’t what concerns me.

My biggest deal, Netflix, (besides the actual name “Quikster”) is it feels like your just a self-conscious populist trying to please anyone and everyone and it really makes you look rather foolish. In two months, your CEO, Reed Hastings has sheepishly emailed all of your customers with his sheeptail between his sheeplegs and really put his sheepfoot in his sheepmouth … twice now!

But I get it; I really do. You need more cost-effective ideas as your company gets bigger and bigger. I pretty much understand supply and demand.  I get that companies that are running well sometimes would like to jump ahead and go further. I just think the way to go about it isn’t to make a dramatic shift in how your company is run and paid for, and then apologize for it when people aren’t thrilled at the idea of paying double what they did previously.

That’s being a coward, Netflix, and for something that’s so revolutionary and so dominant in the way people view and access films, you didn’t seem like the type.

I should mention this: This absolutely doesn’t mean I’m leaving you. Honestly!  But that doesn’t mean that I’m not a little perturbed.

You had me hooked on your line, Netflix, and you kept reeling and reeling and I even stopped fighting for a while (look Dad!  A fishing metaphor!). We were having fun, you and I. But then you decided to loosen the line a little too much and I nearly got away, but you know what? That damn hook is still in my cheek and I don’t even care.  The truth is: it’s easier for me to have the scars from staying on your line than it is to float over to Blockbuster’s sinking boat, so I’ll stay right here and I’ll grow to appreciate it. I know that.

I’m not actually a fish, Netflix; I’m a person. You know that, right?  I’m sure you’re well aware. You’ve probably heard from a lot of people, just like me, that are angry at you for changing. We’re resistant to change; it’s instinctual. We can handle change in baby steps and tiny bites, but with entirely separate companies with terrible names, drastic price increases and unbecoming and unprofessional PR activity, you can at least understand why we’re upset, right?

I hope you can because this ought to be something to think about before your next move, Netflix. It’s for your own good, which actually can work hand-in-hand with OUR own good as consumers, if you didn’t realize.

So just keep your head down, move past this and for God’s sake, don’t try Qwikster again.

All the best!

Love,

Eric

Eric Christenson is a senior print journalism
major and Currents Editor at The Spectator.