I bundled an Apple Music and tv with my cell phone and haven't thought twice about it. I pirate everything else I want.
this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2026
91 points (89.6% liked)
Anticonsumption
1003 readers
105 users here now
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
I avoid subscription fatigue by not subscribing (unless it's a utility).
My policy is to refuse all subscriptions outside of 1 MMO of my choice. I can only subscribe to 1 at a time, though.
I pirate everything else. It's been very easy and more convenient than actually subscribing since my friends can actually watch stuff with me and there's no "household limits".
I don't have a subscription fatigue, but I do have subscription anxiety because I do not have a stable income, so I never know if I run out of money next week or next month.
I used to "subscribe" (set up monthly autopayment donations) to Signal messenger, animal shelters, mental health for veterans in Ukraine, and paid membership in local ecoactivist group; did this because non-profits benefit from recurring donations more. But I had to cancel all of that too.
So right now I am at 0 digital subscriptions (no streaming, no premium, no AI, no memberships etc.)
I have no issues with subscriptions, but people need to remember YOU ARE IN CONTROL, ensure it provides you value.
I have Kagi, Ente, Proton. I consistently evaluate other options, comparing it against self hosting.
Apply this to netflix, if it doesn't provide you value or they up the price, it's okay - You can cancel and look elsewhere...
You have to be aggressively not paying attention to anyone else on Lemmy to feel like you're the only person with subscription fatigue.
The equivalent of going into /pol/ like "does anyone else feel tired of woke liberals??"
I almost can't think of an audience more receptive to this "DAE?" short of a FSF meetup.
⛵🏴☠️🦜 Yarr
How to deal with subscription fatigue:
😍
I've gone all-in.
My source of fatigue is now maintaining updates to my own jellyfin, mail, webdav/carddav, wordpress, xmpp, backups and whatever else I'm selfhosting to escape this hell.
Then the wife goes out and gets Netflix and Disney+ anyway.
That is the biggest problem.
I changed the Netflix subscription from 3 screens to 1 because no one was watching it. No one noticed for 3 months, then suddenly two people wanted to watch different Netflix content at the same time and I was the biggest criminal ever!
I haven’t told them that UniFi monitors network traffic and there are still whole months that no one watches Netflix because then I will be accused of spying on them. (Which I technically am, but since I pay the Internet and streaming bills…)
There should be a law stating that you need a minimum number of hours using a subscription before you can be billed for it. At a minimum they should tell you how many hours you're using it each month.
I would genuinely sub to 3 streaming services, xbox live and a gym if I knew I wouldn't get billed unless I used it.
Unless it's a genuine commitment (e.g. my baseball team) there should be zero cost for zero use.
I subscribe and unsubscribe to games pass so often someone somewhere gets dizzy. I only sub when checking out a new title I might buy and only then when I know I have time to use it.
i wish it was real, especially terabyte amount
Right? It's an old meme, so revisiting it in today's economy is like, "She has a huge hard drive! Get her!"
5 TB of mostly DVD-quality ripped media will have to suffice for now. 😮💨
damn...her collection is bigger than mine
Futureproof comics (and all fiction really) by making the numbers bigger than currently realistic - works only for a little while.
Jellyfin itself, however, will become a household name.
20 TB is pretty much what I have for my whole server. It's just a lil guy. 10 years ago it would have been really nice though.
I’ve decided I’m not participating in anything that bills me on a recurring basis unless I absolutely have to. Phone bill? Have to. Car wash membership? Absolutely fucking not. Mortgage? Yes. Meal delivery plan? Fuck you. Internet? Necessary. Walmart + membership? STFU Walton Goggins!
I cannot stand the local charity groups trying to sign me up for a recurring subscription donation. I'd happily give them 50 bucks one-off, but I can't, so they get nothing.
They don't do this maliciously though or to increase shareholder value like Disney. Charities are genuinely exhausted with fluctuating monthly income dependent on what's in the current news cycle. They can't plan how many help requests they can accept this month if they don't know how much they get next month.
I’m sure they’d be happy with a one-off donation of any size. I don’t think it’s the charities that are the main problem when it comes to subscriptions…
No. The charity muggers in my country come around to my door, or meet me on the street, and they will not take a one-off donation. They want you to go for an ongoing monthly subscription of direct debit from my bank account or credit card that requires time and effort on my part to alter or cancel.
And while they are not the main problem, they are a symptom of the subscription epidemic. When I cannot simply give them 50 bucks because they do not have the means (or willingness) to process it, that is a definite sign that subscriptions have gone too far.
Yes, because these charities want money to pay their employees. You can’t hire someone with a one-time donation. They need reliable, recurring revenue to pay employees.
A proper charity, such as a food bank, soup kitchen, women’s shelter, animal rescue, is very happy to get one-off donations because they are spending the money on supplies and direct action, not on growing headcount.
That is very simplistic. There are a lot of other recurring costs that charities have - even the ones you mentioned have to pay rent at least. A women's shelter probably needs professional employees. Some charities have to operate planes and boats and those are very expensive. The most important thing is - recurring contributions help them plan long term and realistically gauge if they can take on more projects.
Also, calling a monthly donation a "subscription" is stupid. You didn't sign a contract - you can just stop giving the money whenever you want.
Generally those recurring costs are covered by large donors or governments. They may even simply be given a space to use without having to pay anything for it, and by relying mostly on volunteers they can keep overhead extremely low so that donations go straight to purchasing supplies or paying for contract work (vet surgeries, for example). Some of them are even run out of a person’s house, as I’ve seen with a rabbit rescue.
A woman’s shelter may need a few staff but they definitely do not need full time professionals such as doctors, nurses, or counsellors. Those services can be provided via donations or other charities. While I’ve never been to a women’s shelter (I’m not a woman) I have benefited from charity-provided counselling at times when I could not afford to pay for it out of pocket.
We dropped all our streaming and a lot of other subscriptions and honestly haven't missed them. We changed how we did a few things, we buy less in general, and buy from more local places. And rely more on free groups and other similar resources. Mostly we've accepted a bit more inconvenience and delay (if I really want to watch something I'll see if it's easy to get online, otherwise we'll buy a dvd from a place, ask around on our free groups, or order it used on ebay (which is still bad for a few reasons but I'd say not as bad as amazon)). Sometimes it's annoying when we really want to watch something tonight and it's a week out at soonest but it's not a big deal.
I don't because I just don't subscribe to it all. Keeping track of all the services they talk about at work that I don't pay for is bad enough.
And now the expectation is that we pay an AI monthly subscription to manage the other subscriptions. This means giving the AI your power of attorney and banking details. What could go wrong?
My subscriptions:
-mobile phone paid monthly
-internet/isp
-vpn
that's nice if you live with your mother and don't have to pay for insurance, water, property tax, energy, gym/library, periodic maintenance, financial services, other taxes, ...
You are well aware that the term is about tech/digital. ie: netflix, spotify etc
What kind of sh*thole country do you live in where you have to pay to use a library, and why "gym/library"?
I had subscription fatigue back in the late 90s after playing both UO and EQ at the same time.
You can tell your bank and subscription provider to figure it out between themselves and leave you out of it.
Do you trust any bill-sender enough to do that? I don't.
Just another reason to go to the dark side.