Nine Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime

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Nine Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime
Topic Started: May 25 2011, 11:35 PM (586 Views)
Skookum	May 25 2011, 11:35 PM Post #1
~**~ Posts: 19,820 Group: Admin Member #5 Joined: April 30, 2006	(I apologize if someone has already posted this; searched, but did not find on this board. ) 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. e-mail, 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 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 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 fromiTunes. 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 because innovative new music isn’t 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 has heard for years, from 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." (Unquote: No wonder my home town doesn’t have a top 40 station. However, the University of Kentucky has two radio stations playing artists you don’t hear elsewhere, and that gives me a spark of hope. And some new artists are turning to nontraditional sources to get their music out, like YouTube. Did you hear how the band Journey picked up a new member that way, out of a slum in the Philippines?) 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. "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. And "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again. All we will have that can’t be changed are Memories. LINK



earthist	May 26 2011, 07:07 AM Post #2
Geezer Posts: 2,373 Group: Members Member #291 Joined: July 27, 2009	Memories? Ha! Even those are subject to "adjustment." And everyone will go merrily along having no concept that they have lost something valuable: the self. I'm thinking Logan's Run, and how amazed they were when they discovered Peter Ustinov and his books. It seemed like such a light weight flick when it came out, but it's turning out to be damned prophetic. :ohmy: :waaaa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan's_Run_(film)
	If you treat everyone like a criminal, pretty soon, everyone will become a criminal. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. My Blog


VOguy	May 26 2011, 07:48 PM Post #3
Just one of the gang Posts: 230 Group: Members Member #288 Joined: February 15, 2009	After reading that, I'm glad I'm on the plan for my life. I have to have my newspaper in the morning, a book on long vacations, and my 60s and 70s music.
	"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."


MuseNoir	May 27 2011, 12:53 AM Post #4
Lucky Fractal Girl Posts: 4,027 Group: Members Member #314 Joined: August 30, 2010	I just cant accept that books will disappear. What a horrible world that would be. I want no part of it.



Sean_	May 27 2011, 08:08 AM Post #5
Infinite One Posts: 66,537 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: April 29, 2006	Book stores are in trouble and are closing everywhere. Paper made books may die but reading never will. Book readers are the way to go. An easier, cheaper, and faster method of passing on the written word. E book readers may encourage more children to read. Note, the Star Trek universe is a paperless society. Newspapers? Many don't seem interested in the news and those who are get their news on tv or online. By the time the newspaper arrives at your door its yesterday's news. More of an historical document now. The post office and the check? Many legal correspondence has to be done through the mail. Checks? Same reason. Music? Never. The way we obtain music is, the CD is on the way out. The music "industry" may die out which actually might be a good thing. Music itself will never die. Land line telephone? Probably. TV? Well they are sort of destroying themselves which the author points out. Privacy? We have only ourselves to blame for that.
	It has happened before. It will happen again.


Nick_Fury	May 27 2011, 03:59 PM Post #6
Member Posts: 4 Group: N-Members Member #479 Joined: May 21, 2011	I disagree with 6-7 Music will always be with us as long long as a teenager has punk rocker dream.....And not everyone can afford a Internet or the TV to stream it. I am 34 I doubt ANY of these will gone before I pass into the next life.



grumpychick	May 28 2011, 08:02 PM Post #7
Moon over NV Posts: 17,167 Group: Admin Member #445 Joined: May 2, 2011	Skookum May 25 2011, 11:35 PM 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 fromiTunes. 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. In my experience, the price of e-books is not less than half of a real book. When it comes to popular paperback fiction &/or bestsellers the prices are pretty much comparable. I have a Barnes & Noble nook & I absolutely love it but it hasn't completely replaced books for me. Not every book I want to read is available for the nook. There have been a few times when I've forgotten to charge the nook & had to wait until it had adequate charge to read. A real book is always ready to go. I like to read in the tub & I'm more comfortable with an actual book there. If I accidentally drop a book in the tub, I'm out much less $$ than if I drop the nook!
	"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun." - Katharine Hepburn. "I carried a watermelon." - Frances Houseman "Everyone deserves the chance to FLY!" - Elphaba Thropp


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