Posted on 04/22/2018 6:13:57 AM PDT by sodpoodle
Ten Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime
1. The Post Office
Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.
2. The Check
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with check by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.
3. The Newspaper
The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.
4. The Book
You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.
5. The Land Line Telephone
Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.
6. Music
This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalogue items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."
7. Television Revenues
To the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.
8. The "Things" That You Own
Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.
9. Joined Handwriting (Cursive Writing)
Already gone in some schools who no longer teach "joined handwriting" because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some type (pun not intended)
10. Privacy
If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway.. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits.. "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again and again.
All we will have left that which can't be changed.......are our "Memories".
Logic is dead. Excellence is punished. Mediocrity is rewarded. And dependency is to be revered.. This is present-day North America. When crooks rob banks they go to prison. When they rob the taxpayer they get re-elected
The future is over-rated.
Reason has been replaced by emotion.
Which is why ancient Greek democracy failed in the long run.
I see we’ll STILL be stuck with, ‘She Who Shall Not Be Named!’
If she’s in MY future - I ain’t goin’! ;)
The constitution
Privacy rights
Property rights
America
Western civilization
Families
Too blunt?
Yes. The future will see it as the Wild West.
And you know how we miss the Wild West...:)
This is one of those articles that are fun to read but full of overblown speculations. The Post Office will continue to reinvent itself as it has with package delivery. To mail a DVD or small book by Media Mail is $2.66. Why would I pay UPS and Fed Ex rates?
“The 20th Century was great;) “
So are:
Cellphones with internet and navigation
75” Tv’s with 4k her
600 HP cars with all the goodies getting 20 mpg
WIFI
...
I disagree about the cloud.
There will be a place to keep certain items that are not on the cloud.
Traffic lights are likely to vanish as self-driving cars establish a safety record superior to humans, leading to a ban on non-self-driving cars.
If/When land lines are gone I will be telephone free. I will not carry a cell phone and I will not pay the exorbitant cost of one compared to my landline or go through the constant hassle of recharging for the ones that do sort of compare with the cost of the landline. The land line also stays functional in power outages and through hurricanes that take out all the nearby cell towers. That is a considerable advantage here in Florida. When cables are all underground I might go to an internet phone but it will be attached to my desktop and will not go with me to be constantly pestering me through my day.
Most music downloaded or streamed is lower quality.
You forgot the Democrat Party.
It’s demise can’t come soon enough.
” I will not carry a cell phone”
What is your problem? My cellphone pays for itself everyday!
With wireless charging there is no plugging in.
1) I don’t think so. It will change somewhat but My P.O. Box will be filled with orders, checks and invoices thirty years from now.
2) We’re not Britain. We use a check for proof of payment on occasion.
3) Agree.
4) Disagree. Vinyl records are still being sold, so will special books.
5) We have EIGHT phone lines - ditched our last landline three years ago when our DSL speed could not exceed 325KB - paid for 1.5 MB. VIOP phone lines are very reasonably priced.
6) I can’t say, but I do believe live music is alive and well.
7) Seems like the author is bitchin’ about cable companies here.
8) When I purchase a movie online I download it and make a copy of it as a backup. Has come in handy more than once when a movie ‘disappears’ from my movie collection.
9) I gave up cursive in the 70’s
10) Sure. But I’m still private.
When I am out of touch I want to be out of touch. I don’t want to hear people whining at me,”Why didn’t you answer your phone? I was trying to call you!” Folks say what happens if your bike breaks down a hundred miles from help? Well that has happened to me on more than one occasion and guess what? I coped without too much hassle.
“will not go with me to be constantly pestering me through my day.”
You might be surprised that the human has control over the phone ...
IMHO, we need a “Rosetta Stone” of technology.
e.g., SAMNA documents, 8mm videotape, etc. are not directly accessible. What if they change DVD or mp3 to become unreadable? (i.e., to sell updates)
The dirty little secret about UPS and FedEx is they charge you extra to give it to the Post Office to deliver. They make money off of you when you don’t use USPS.
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