Upside of Netflix’s shuttered mail service: Free DVDs!
So your kids have gone to see “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” Now what? Many young film fans are still a couple of weeks out from going back to school, but once you get past “Turtles,” the choices at the local movie theater – especially for those who aren’t yet ready for living dolls with existential crises or the history of the atomic bomb – are pretty slim in the doldrums of August. Fortunately, streaming services have you covered with fun cartoons, coming-of-age stories and other movies that will keep everyone entertained in between last-minute summer reading lists and back-to-school shopping. Here are 10 recent at-home options (of the PG- and G-rated variety) streaming now for kids to watch:
When subscribers receive their last red envelopes from DVD.com — the rental-by-mail arm of Netflix dedicated to the physical discs that made the company a household name — they can add those movies to their permanent collection.
Netflix said on Aug. 24 that customers could keep their final batch of DVD or Blu-ray Discs at no additional cost and that they could also request up to 10 more movies by mail as part of an everything-must-go deal.
“We are not charging for any unreturned discs after 9/29,” the company wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Please enjoy your final shipments for as long as you like!”
In April, Netflix said it would shutter its DVD service at the end of September after more than 25 years, citing a continually shrinking market. It shipped its first DVD in March 1998, at a time when
Blockbuster dominated the movie rental business and most internet connections were of the dial-up variety. The company began offering a subscription streaming service in 2007, accelerating a societal shift away from physical media.
But even as streaming became the core of its business — Netflix had 238 million global subscribers last quarter — devotees to the rental-by-mail service remained. For a monthly fee (starting at $9.99 for one disc at a time), the company continued to ship its signature envelopes to a dwindling but passionate customer base. Netflix does not disclose how many subscribers are signed up for DVDs, but The Associated Press estimated that last year the total was between 1.1 million and 1.3 million.
Because of format-specific rights agreements, the company offers many movies as DVD or Blu-ray rentals that
Maybe you’ve spotted it in a coffee shop. Or across a classroom. A wall of blue text: Someone typing out a near novel-length text message that left you wondering and worried about the person on the other end of it.
Is that conversation the beginning of a breakup? Are roommates confronting each other about whose turn it is to take out the trash, only to have it spill out into a litany of other quibbles? Is a child unleashing unfounded frustrations out on a parent? Such texts aren’t all that uncommon, especially as younger generations grow up with the ability to communicate any way they want literally at their fingertips.
But is texting a great way to actually have meaningful conversations? Mostly no, but sometimes yes when you consider the boundaries of that specific relationship.
“I wouldn’t say it’s 100% of the time you should have that conversation inperson,” says Miranda Nadeau, a licensed psychologist. “But I think there are important considerations, if you are going to use text message that go beyond feeling nervous or avoidant.”