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
“books....many many people will keep books because digital books can be altered or banned...”
The ‘Written Word’ has been banned and altered many times.
I can’t stand it when someone calls me on their cell. The sound is all wonky. They’re always losing signals. What’s worse is they never say to hold on a second while they talk to a cashier or someone in front of them.
Who needs a smart phone. I want my old $5/mo. limited cell service back.
“Who needs a smart phone.”
I do.
Boaters come by 50 times a day with their rap crap blasting FU and other nasty stuff so loud the windows rattle. The author left out “Respect for others” off his list.
Finally got my parents to get caller ID but don’t think they bother using it.
It is also something else one has to carry around. It is not so useful as to warrant the expense or the space. And I got turned off years ago by seeing all the folks interrupting dinner conversations to answer the cell phone and large groups of youths obviously together and every one talking on their cells. I have a desk top at home and that is all the “connected” I care to be. There is still a world outside the Cloud.
I am still doing bookkeeping for 2 clients. I receive their data by USPS & sometimes Fed Ex, but I have to MAIL it back priority since I live rural. I take the completed data to the post office & MAIL it to them. Taking it to Fed Ex is about 31 miles further than my post office——ONE WAY.
Many rural people rely on their mail being delivered. People who are not real mobile also depend on those deliveries.
I refuse to pay any bills online. I get my bills in the mail, attach receipts to my Credit card statements, and write out checks once a month when my Soc Sec comes in. I use cash whenever I can.
I refuse to let Big Brother destroy my privacy about some things. It is nobody’s business what I buy with cash.
It is also something else one has to carry around. It is not so useful as to warrant the expense or the space. And I got turned off years ago by seeing all the folks interrupting dinner conversations to answer the cell phone and large groups of youths obviously together and every one talking on their cells. I have a desk top at home and that is all the “connected” I care to be. There is still a world outside the Cloud.
In school we were told by 1965 everyone would have flying cars guess some things just don’t work out.
“It is also something else one has to carry around. It is not so useful as to warrant the expense or the space.”
If you chose not to carry one, ok. But for many the convenience and money-savings are well worth it.
I could give you a thousand but I will give you one for now.
While on the road, my mother had an emergency and they were able to reach me so I could ensure she was getting the proper care and was able to go directly to the hospital instead of going home and possibly finding a message on my home phone.
What is Go?
Until they can make a simple lap top not crash, I’m not trusting a car not to crash.
Hope I can outlive Soetoro.
You have absolutely NO IDEA how many American citizens live rural & cannot lose their mail delivery. I know of ranches in NE Nevada that have driveways 3 miles long-—the ranches exceed 6000 acres.
“I have a desk top at home and that is all the “connected” I care to be. There is still a world outside the Cloud.”
Being connected make the world outside the cloud more convenient and safer ...
The whole concept of a cashless society sounds so convenient to most but it gives other people, especially the government, total immediate surveillance of all one's uses of money and thus total control of YOU and ME and everyone else.
“Until they can make a simple lap top not crash, I’m not trusting a car not to crash.”
I hope you don’t fly on the airlines ....
And you can talk on the phone without without having to get dressed, brush your hair and put on makeup, eat all you want and roll your eyes at the other person without them knowing.
“You have absolutely NO IDEA how many American citizens live rural & cannot lose their mail delivery. “
PO Box or General Delivery?
No dial- pushbuttons and a short non curly cord.
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