Isn't it amazing that there are things we seem to do on a daily basis but never put much thought into? When I saw the prompt for the week, the answer did not come to me immediately, neither did it come to me that day. It took me some time before I was able to decide. And now, I have decided. I'll share my opinions on streaming and downloading, as they relate to me, with you.
When I listen to songs I'm not so familiar with their lyrics, I enjoy streaming. With that, I get to enjoy singing along those songs and enjoying my music at the same time. There's also this spotify feature one gets, only when you stream. Music recommendations. I create playlists a lot, and that feature brings me songs the algorithm knows I'll love. I can't count how many songs I've come to know and love, through this feature. So for these, I'm grateful to streaming. But streaming can be very unreliable for me.
Network can be very unstable where I am. There have been so many times I wanted to do something but ended up not doing it because of network. If you're a Nigerian, and have travelled along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and gone on interstate travels, there are spots when your phones suddenly displays 'No Service'. Imagine streaming at that point, spotify wouldn't be generous enough to play an undownloaded music without internet connection. YouTube would not even bat an eyelid. Netflix would politely notify me that internet connection has been lost. Moviebox will continue to load and load. All these, because I want to be entertained or achieve whatever reason that made me enter these apps. I'm sorry but I can't bet my satisfaction on these network providers.
I actually thought I had so many reasons to love streaming but writing about it now, makes me realize I don't. Downloading, has always been my go to option from my secondary school days when I got my first phone. If I decide to stream a movie, it's unsettling. There's this feeling I get when I sit to watch a movie I downloaded. Its comfortable. And I get to concentrate better. Unlike streaming, where if I don't put my phone on dnd, notifications and distractive messages will be flying here and there. If I even put the phone on DND, while streaming, I'll be the one to turn it off myself. I'll tell myself 'Let messages enter a little' and boom! That little is definitely about 15mins to 30mins.
A downloaded movie won't suddenly switch up on you, halfway into watching, because service went down. Same for a downloaded song and a YouTube video. They are ready for you anytime and anywhere. I'm probably so in love with downloading, because leaving data on for a long time, drains my phone's battery percentage. So, doing my things offline is something I'm now accustomed to.
Space? That is not an issue for me. I'm very comfortable with deleting as soon as a file has fulfilled it's purpose on my phone. Downloading works just fine for me in different situations but for streaming, I do it very rarely. When the situation calls for it.
This is my entry to #Digi-prompts for the week.
Images are mine