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9 Things to disappear in our lifetime.
retroxler58
Member Posts: 32,693 ✭✭✭
Interesting read... And pretty factual I think. Time to ponder...
************************
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. USPS has been a bloated enterprise for several years now and it's time
is coming to an end.
2. The Check
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with written checks 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 written 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. (I've not written a personal check for about
twelve years. I send checks automated out from the credit union only if the
electronic means isn't available. I still have three of the five "books of checks"
I got when I opened my account 20 years ago. Can you say dinosaur? [:o)])
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. And for those of us who bought newspapers
as a means to line the litter pan, there's electronic pets now too that
don't poop!
4. The Book
(This one actually saddens me. [V])
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. And some even extend "local" calls to the entire
continental US. (I went the way of VoIP several years ago and haven't missed
my 'land line phone' bill since. YEA! [^])
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 "catalog 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. ('Virtual World'??? Can you say "The MATRIX" ? [B)])
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"...
But then, probably Alzheimer's will take that away from us too! [B)]
************************
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. USPS has been a bloated enterprise for several years now and it's time
is coming to an end.
2. The Check
Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with written checks 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 written 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. (I've not written a personal check for about
twelve years. I send checks automated out from the credit union only if the
electronic means isn't available. I still have three of the five "books of checks"
I got when I opened my account 20 years ago. Can you say dinosaur? [:o)])
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. And for those of us who bought newspapers
as a means to line the litter pan, there's electronic pets now too that
don't poop!
4. The Book
(This one actually saddens me. [V])
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. And some even extend "local" calls to the entire
continental US. (I went the way of VoIP several years ago and haven't missed
my 'land line phone' bill since. YEA! [^])
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 "catalog 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. ('Virtual World'??? Can you say "The MATRIX" ? [B)])
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"...
But then, probably Alzheimer's will take that away from us too! [B)]
Comments
If someone wants to send something to your house they HIRE someone to deliver and slip it under your door. Water, gas, elec. etc, under the door.
Hate post offices, my U.S. home box fills up with "crap". Most of the "crap" is fliers or "deals" or brochures,, who gives a crap about that crap.
Who knows how much the government could save by eliminating the Post Office.
Losing BILLIONS on something that isn't worth a crap.
Other than tha fact the post office is useless, it's fine with me.[:D]
average white male
Yes, that would be #10!