Like the typical college student, I enjoy coming home after a long day of class, crashing on my couch and watching TV.
Like the typical college student, I also come home after a long day of class and have to worry about homework and quizzes, working two jobs and studying for all of these damn midterms.
Needless to say, TV seems to have taken a back seat this semester for many college students like me.
With so many great shows on every night — as well as a necessity to feed my daily fix of “SportsNation” and host Michelle Beadle — the invention of the digital video recorder has helped me maintain my busy work schedule while not missing my favorite shows.
However, every month my cable bill comes in, I cry a little because the rates are so outrageous.
A fee for basic cable, a fee for expanded cable, a fee for high definition, a fee for my premium channels, a fee for the DVR — and all of that on top of my Internet charges.
I’ve learned the hard way that entertainment comes with a price. And a hefty price at that.
Yet, with the advancement of technology, many alternatives may eventually lead to the end of cable TV as we know it.
Although beginning as strictly a service for renting movies, Netflix has taken the world by storm in the past few years in the way it provides its service to customers.
Originally, Netflix offered nothing more than subscription-based DVD rentals.
The company has now taken over home entertainment consoles with its “Watch Instantly” video streaming option.
“Watch Instantly” provides customers with unlimited streaming on a variety of devices — any iOS device, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, many Blu-ray players, cable boxes and certain TV models — and features more than 17,000 movies and recorded TV shows.
“Watch Instantly” includes many popular shows like “The Office” or “Dexter.”
The only downside is Netflix, as of right now, does not offer streaming of the current seasons.
That’s where Hulu comes in.
While many major TV stations offer streaming of new episodes on their websites shortly after they air live, Hulu crams all of these latest episodes and more together in one place.
Hulu — a joint venture of NBC Universal, Fox Entertainment Group, ABC Inc., and Providence Equity Partners — is a free (as of now), ad-based service that provides users new episodes of current TV shows the day after they air on their respective networks.
For those not interested in subscription-based services, devices such as Apple TV or the newly released Google TV both add a variety of options to consumers over cable.
While Apple TV and Google TV have many features separating them from each other, they both have the ability to stream YouTube and Netflix to users.
Both also allow users to pay for full TV seasons, individual episodes or movies and have them streamed wirelessly to TVs.
With all of these options available and more, it almost seems silly to continue paying for things I don’t watch.
To me, it would almost make more financial sense to cancel my cable subscription and just watch my select shows on Hulu and stream movies via Netflix.
 I can even get my ESPN fix with the new ESPN3 service on my Xbox 360.
Yet others, like my dad, may like to pay for every movie channel offered by Cox and tell me they think Netflix and other streaming services are a waste of money.
It’s just the kind of world we live in.
However, it’s safe to say online streaming is the future, and cable companies better watch out.
Netflix has already caused Blockbuster to declare bankruptcy — it’s only a matter of time before others follow.
Adam Arinder is a 21-year-old communication studies senior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_aarinder.
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Contact Adam Arinder at [email protected]