9
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
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 theGoogle 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.
What do you think or feel of the list above? Please share your comment on the blog below. We'd love to hear from you.
