Nine Things

[Crash Calestorm 0]

Interesting, but a short list: I'd also consider the typewriter, pay phone and rotary phone some items to put down as well.

 

Nine Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime

 

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come.

 

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 on-line 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. 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.

[TKAR 0]

true

[V'Roy 0]

I disagree with 2, 6, and 8. Not everybody takes credit or ATM cards and you still don't want to send cash through the mail. Landlords still want checks. Physical objects, like underwear, won't translate to a cloud. Music will lways exist, and will most likely continue to be made, but the distribution network may be different.

[Shalin 0]

I would contend that we still can have privacy if we seek it. After all - while it is true that there are cameras, monitors, etc. everywhere - they don't all belong to one entity. We should strive to make sure this remains the case ... that one entity cannot access these various sources of information.There is, of course, a way to maintain your privacy: be a quiet person trying to live a quiet life. You don't bother them ... they won't bother you.

[T'aral 0]

New music will always exist - perhaps not as it is today, but it will continue to exist and improve. People, however, need to learn that it is up to us to support the artists we appreciate. *Purchase* their work if you enjoy it. Often it can be done directly, meaning the money doesn't go to greedy execs, but to the artists themselves. Especially these days, that is harder and harder to justify not doing so.

 

 

As for the loss of books, I will fight that tooth and nail. I don't care that maintaining a library requires more space - it is a price I gladly pay. Besides, screens hurt my eyes after a while.

 

... and I don't want my data in 'the cloud', precisely for the final reason. My rights and freedoms are based in my privacy. My rights and liberty isn't based on how highly I am taxed or on whether or not my health care is provided by the government - my rights and liberty are based in the premise that my business is my own and no one else's. When my data is held by others I lose that privacy, and THAT is when I lose my rights and freedom. If someone else holds my data and my books are all in that data, then works that 'people' consider unacceptable can convienently disappear.

 

As long as I hold it in my hand, it is safe.

Edited June 26, 2011 by T'aral

[STSF Seiben 0]

People still use typewriters, rotary phones and pay phones? I think they've all gone the way of VCRs and floppy disks. I've seen 7 year old kids talking on cell phones! No joke. I agree with the list, except for 6 and 8. Music will always exist. The music industry and song artists will continue to pump out new music just as they have for centuries.

[T'aral 0]

I am less concerned about the loss of technologies than I am with the loss of less tangible values.

 

 

No one would expect the Pony Express to be working today - certainly not in the same manner. We don't write with dip quill pens except for artists who engage in the craft of calligraphy. Free television would be more of a loss, though the way news is managed today it is less of a loss than one would think.

 

 

The loss of music, books, private ownership of one's own data and materials, and privacy would be far more tragic.

[Crash Calestorm 0]

I've tried digital books on my smart phone - convenient, but not something I want to jump into completely. The bottom line is I'm not required to charge a hard copy book.

 

I am less concerned about the loss of technologies than I am with the loss of less tangible values.

Values? In today's modern society? Do people even have values anymore? No.

 

That is loaded subject on several different fronts, and I agree it is a concern.

[STSF Seiben 0]

Yeah, iBooks on my iPhone or Kindle for my Android tablet can get pretty hard on the eyes after awhile, especially in the dark, although it helps if you turn the brightness to a low setting. But I didn't find reading ebooks on my Sony e-reader any problem at all. The e-ink screen makes it very friendly on the eyes and I can read books on it for hours and not feel any strain at all. Books will always exist, I'm sure, but I suspect what they were saying in Calestorm's list is that publishers will eventually switch from paper books to e-books. My city's library already offers e-books to download, and most people who go to the library here, mainly go for the free wi-fi (including myself). I'm pretty sure that's where books will be in 10-20 years though I'm sure paper and hard cover books will be around in a limited form. Newspapers I'm sure will be all electric soon though. Good for the trees though! (I'm no environmentalist, or Green Peace activist but more trees around do make for more fresh air).

[V'Roy 0]

People still use typewriters, rotary phones and pay phones? I think they've all gone the way of VCRs and floppy disks. I've seen 7 year old kids talking on cell phones! No joke. I agree with the list, except for 6 and 8. Music will always exist. The music industry and song artists will continue to pump out new music just as they have for centuries.

 

::sings:: "Friday, Friday, Gettin down on Friday, Everybody's lookin forward to the weekend, weekend."

[Crash Calestorm 0]

::sings:: "Friday, Friday, Gettin down on Friday, Everybody's lookin forward to the weekend, weekend."

 

::screams and runs away::

[V'Roy 0]

Oh come on. It's not any worse than Manic Monday, and that one went to # 2. It was even written by Prince!

[STSF Seiben 0]

Oh come on. It's not any worse than Manic Monday, and that one went to # 2. It was even written by Prince!

 

Oh yes it is. :P The main reason Friday went viral is because of how bad it was, lol.

[V'Roy 0]

Yeah, that one kinda backfired on her. Maybe her mom should have spent that 4 grand on some damn singing lessons. :D