We are a species that loves its conveniences. The easier something is to complete or achieve, the more we seem to like it. "Work smart, not hard" is our motto. This love of convenience is fueled by today's increasing technological developments. We carry computers in our pockets, our cars parallel park themselves, and groceries and meals are delivered to our doors.

Over the past 18 years, streaming services have changed the way we consume media.

The way music is delivered to us is forever changing. From phonographs (I doubt any of you remember that era) to LPs, cassette tapes to CDs, it is an industry that is always coming up with new ways to give us the gift of music. When the iPod was introduced in 2001, music consumption was changed forever, more so than it ever had been. We now had the capability to download and carry thousands of songs in our pockets, ready to be heard at a moment’s notice. If the ability to carry enough music to fill a small record store wasn't convenient enough, along came music streaming services.

We didn’t even need to download the music anymore.

With the introduction of Pandora in 2000, we now had the ability to stream music straight from an online database with the click of a button. Then, Spotify pushed the music streaming industry to the next level and completely changed the game. While Pandora required you to listen to a radio station, Spotify allowed you to choose whatever song you wanted to listen to at that exact moment. You could have the same catalog of music you had with the iPod without having to worry about the hassle of downloading. You want evidence of this shift in music consumption? When you hop into your car these days, what is one of the first things you do? My bet is you grab the aux cord and open Spotify, Pandora, or Apple Radio; your iPod is an afterthought…and don’t even get me started on the radio or the cracked Backstreet Boys CD under the passenger seat. Streaming music is just way too convenient.

Now, if streaming services and their convenience changed the way we listen to music, then they completely rearranged the way we watch movies and television.

Prior to Netflix’s founding in 1997 or the mid 2000s when it seemed to explode, the way we watched television and movies was completely different. There was no sitting on your couch and binge watching an entire season of "Grey’s Anatomy" and ‘Netflix and Chill’ wasn’t even a thing yet. We no longer make Friday night trips to Blockbuster to grab a few DVDs for family movie night; we just turn on our Xboxes or open our laptops, and if there is still a Blockbuster in your town, I guarantee it’s so overgrown it looks it belongs in Chernobyl Diaries. The demise of Blockbuster and the movie rental industry differs from CDs and radio in the sense that the former is due to a bit of hubris, but I digress. When it comes to watching television, we no longer have to wait a week for a new episode of our favorite TV show to air, nor do we have to worry about commercials. Even when new seasons of a show air on TV, many say they’ll wait for Netflix to upload it so they can watch it all at once. Netflix is just way too convenient, like an “all you can eat buffet” for television and movies.

And when it comes our love for streaming services, the numbers don’t lie. As of 2015, Netflix has 62.3 million subscribers worldwide…and I’m sure that does not account for the millions who are logged on to someone else's account. Spotify is a little behind with 20 million subscribers, but they have over 75 million active users worldwide.

It’s obvious that streaming services have changed the way we consume media, and let’s be honest, we love the convenience…so let’s just go with the flow.