9 Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime: A discussion paper for you
all
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 Cheque
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with
cheque by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to
process cheques. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual
demise of the cheque. 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.
All we will have left that can't be changed are "Memories".
And then
probably Alzheimers will take that away from us too !
Acknowledgements and thanks: Barbara of Taita, Lower Hutt, NZ
http://huttriver.blog.co.uk/2012/01/25/9-things-that-will-disappear-in-our-lifetime-a-discussion-paper-for-you-all-12516271/
GBE2 Blog
on: My blogging history...
In my post
yesterday I wrote of predictions made by the ancient 
By Peter Petterson
First published at Qondio
The British Royal Automobile Club came up with a list of what a car's color says about the owner. Here is what your vehicle could be telling you.
Black: You're ambitious and status seeking
Green: You're very traditional and an elitist
Blue: You're a team player and very sociable
White: You're aloof dutiful and methodical
Grey: You're understated and cautious
Silver: You have a sense of style, but you can be pompous
Red: You're outgoing, impulsive and easily bored.
Acknowledgements: Chicago Sun-Times