I Love Paying for the Things I Use
Last week I signed up for a YouTube Premium subscription. I watch quite a lot of YouTube, some for my studies and some for fun and keeping up with my hobbies. I was always annoyed by the ads, but never thought of paying for a subscription.
Then, I talked to a friend who told me that paying for YouTube Premium was the best thing he ever did. Watching the content he loves without interruptions was a perfect return for his money (not to mention you also get a music subscription app). I was intrigued and signed up for the one-month trial, and boy, why didn't I do it sooner!
My view on this is as follows—YouTube provides some of the best content I enjoy and learn from. I can pay a small amount of money every month (for students in Israel, it costs half as much as a single beer in a bar) to make my experience really better. It would make me use my time better, without interruptions between and during videos.
I know some people hate subscriptions, but I have to admit I love them. We got used to really good products for free (or for free while sacrificing ourselves to be the product), and we forget that sometimes, the right thing is to pay. There are two cases when I will pay for services and apps that I use:
- I get significant value (as I see it); that is the case with YouTube Premium.
- I want to support an amazing product and its developers (like buying a coffee to support the RTL plugin for Obsidian I use).
When I view the payment as serving one of the two cases, I press the pay button with love. It makes me feel good that I upgrade my life, or that I support someone who is working really hard for something I care about.