Netflix Users Experience Paradox of Abundance

prostoalex writes "The deal seems to be rather simple — you pay a monthly fee, receive a certain number of DVDs, and as soon as you watch them, and send them back, there's more coming. This simple model made Netflix into a $1.4 bln company, but now, Wall Street Journal reports, some Netflix users are experiencing the abundance paradox — the movies arrive, collect dust on the customer's desks, and then are sent back for the new set of movies to face the same fortune. From the article: "'It's a paradox of abundance,' said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of culture and communication at New York University. If people aren't pressured to see a movie in a specific time frame, he said, viewers tend to put it lower on their priority list. 'When you have every choice in front of you, you have less urgency about any particular choice.'"

Comments

Re:Why does the headline cast this in a bad light?

[Excelsior]

Agreed. This must be a slow news day. So far we have such insightful news stories as:

- Gambling company employees are crooked. (Now, I'm really disillusioned.)
- Microsoft bought somebody. (Seriously? I'm falling all over myself to click the link ASAP.)
- SGI is in financial trouble. (That's new...not. There has got to be something more interesting to read around here.)
- The next version of Windows has security flaws. (Notify me when this is NOT the case.)
- Netflix users enjoy convenience of watching movies that their leisure. (My craps are sometimes more newsworthy.)

Cue the story about Google being in favor of net neutrality mandates and lobby-supported senators being against it.