No more Netflix, more to give | Editorial

Published 12:35 pm Thursday, January 19, 2012

About six months ago, Netflix announced it would be raising its rates by as much as 60 percent, something that caused a massive public furor among its 23 million subscribers.

I recall reading posts on Facebook and Twitter about it.

Many railed against the rate hike while others attempted to remind folks that having DVDs delivered to your mail box for eight bucks a month is nothing short of a luxury.

Talk about a first world problem, right?

When the rate changes were announced in July with plans for the hike in price to go into effect in September, I was among the angry subscribers, but I also saw the point made by those who tried to give the ranting cheapskate movie fans some perspective on the matter.

I was shelling out about $11 a month for one DVD a month with unlimited rentals, so to speak, along with unlimited streaming of digital media over my Wii or computer or whatever device I wanted to use.

We had just dropped down to that plan a few months earlier because we found with having a toddler and both of us working, it didn’t make sense to pay for something we weren’t using.

By the time September rolled around I realized we had a DVD that had been sitting by the BluRay player for more than a month and I couldn’t remember the last time we had streamed a movie or TV show.

Because we used the BluRay option, I paid a couple bucks extra each month, so the price hike would have meant $20 a month for unlimited streaming of content and the one DVD at a time with as many movies as we could watch a month.

Seemed silly to pay nearly twice as much for something we didn’t even use and likely wouldn’t use anytime soon given our schedules and the demands of parenting.

As a result, I canceled the service, and I was also really annoyed by the price hike.

I didn’t want to pay more when I was trying to eliminate unnecessary expenses from my life. I had cut our cable bill, our cell phone bill, axed my satellite radio subscription and tried to cut back on eating out.

With a small child, a mortgage, a car payment and other bills that come with home ownership it only made sense to be better with our money.

But, when it came to Netflix, I was just mad.

I tweeted about it, joining in on the cacophony of “Dear Netflix…” posts that voiced displeasure over the changes, but rather than just complaining I made a vow.

With the $20 a month I would not be spending I pledged to put that toward a charitable cause.

My last payment to Netflix for services rendered was in September.

And I have yet to donate a penny.

Yes, my moral outrage petered out pretty quickly, as did my commitment to my pledge.

This occurred to me during the morning of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I have no idea why. Maybe the posts on Facebook about what Dr. King did to make change got me thinking.

Then I remembered about a website I read about a month or so ago called DonorsChoose.org.

Teachers can go to the site and submit requests to fund projects in their classrooms. Kent School District educators ask for helping building their classroom libraries, for money for items such as dry erase boards or items called manipulatives that offer hands on learning of concepts or other tools that enhance their ability to help their students learn.

These ideas are simple, inexpensive, creative and innovative. But, there’s not much money in building budgets for them anymore and teachers only have so much spare cash to spend, so they’ve asked for help.

Another website has popped up called SA500 Kids, one which works in partnership with DonorsChoose.org, which you can find at http://www.oo.com/sa500kids.

There are nearly two dozen requests for funding from Kent educators. There are more Covington schools on Donors Choose if you want to get hyperlocal in your support.

In any case, Sarah Kehoe, a reporter based in the Kent Reporter office is going to write about SA500 Kids and projects in Kent schools.

Then I remembered another cool concept I heard about when Scott Oki, a retired Microsoft executive-slash-millionaire, spoke at the Greater Maple Valley Community Center’s benefit breakfast nearly two years ago.

He helped start a foundation called See Your Impact, where donors give small amounts that go a long way, at a website called seeyourimpact.org.

The concept seemed pretty cool to me.

So, the plan is to make $80 worth of small donations in the coming week, to put my pledge into action. I am going to donate $80 because it has been four months since I gave Netflix any money. Had I continued using the service I would have paid about $20 a month.

I would be thrilled if anyone was willing to match my donations or would consider finding something in their lives they could cut out for a month of two so they could give a little to some of these projects in our area.

If you think about the huge impact of a number of people giving $10 or $20 could have in a classroom in a local school, it could have a ripple effect into the community and into the future, so check the sites out.

I know if I can live without Netflix and make that change be beneficial to kids then surely you can find a way to do some good, too.