When freshman Maya Kakani first heard that Disney would create its own streaming service, she felt excited to relive childhood memories. She immediately signed up.

“I was really excited because I love old Disney shows, and a lot of them got taken off Netflix a couple of years,” Kakani said. “I was really glad I could watch them again.”

There are countless streaming services offered to the world from Netflix to HBO to Hulu to Amazon Prime. On Nov. 12, 2019, another service was added to the list: Disney Plus.

Disney Plus offers shows and movies such as “High School Musical”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Jessie” and so much more. However, the service also offers shows from Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and National Geographic. Like other streaming services, to join Disney Plus one can sign up and go through a free trial of a week before getting a charge of $6.99 per month.

In early February, just three months after its launch, Disney Plus had 28 million subscribers, according to the New York Times. The most-streamed content included “The Simpsons,” “Moana” and “The Mandalorian” according to Disney’s chief executive Robert A. Iger. 

Dean of Students Brianna Coughlan said that she does not think that Disney Plus would cause students to watch more media than they are already currently watching.

“I mean, there are already so many platforms and services [students] gained access to,” Coughlan said. “I think adding one more won’t cause anyone to increase their video consumption by a significant amount.”

Coughlan said that she thinks that Upper School Director Gretchen Warner’s presentation about streaming services at the start of the year did have an effect on how students will now make decisions about streaming services.

“I think following Archer’s culture in general, educating [students] is the best way to go about this,” Coughlan said. “We are trying to empower you all as humans to [take] care of your own mind and body; we want you to make good decisions that are good for you.”

Kakani noted that she tends to be “good at procrastinating” and she catches herself binge-watching Disney shows instead of studying or doing homework.

“Sometimes I set limits,” Kakani said. “I’ll watch an hour of Disney Plus, and then I’ll do an hour of homework.”

The common strategy of setting limits is shared among students. Freshmen London Dorton also sets a limit on how much time she should be watching Disney Plus and how much time she should be spending on school work.

“I normally know how to stop,” she said, “but I do find myself at times that I should be doing homework but instead I’m watching ‘Zach and Cody.'”

On the other hand, freshman Treasure Brown feels that Disney Plus was not what she expected and it does not interfere with her academic life.

“I don’t really use it because I think it’s aimed more for little kids,” Brown said. “It’s not a form of distraction for me at all.”

Coughlan shared how even though it is possible for them to cut access to all the different services while on campus, the administration would rather take a different route by educating the community instead.

“When you leave Archer, if we take the route [of cutting access to the services], we haven’t taught you anything,” Coughlan said. “That’s going to affect your decisions in the future.”