Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime

[James Tanner - Bryston]

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...

The Check (Cheque). 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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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 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.

[Still-One]

James
So true.
Whole industries continue to disappear.
-Think of the film industry for camera's, virtually disappeared in 10 years.
-Where are all the milkmen?
-Service stations have become gas stations/mini-markets.
-Movie theaters will all be digital in the near future.

[Masterlu]

On the other hand, quality Audio Forums will Flourish.

[Face]

[MC352]

I'm not sure the Post Office will disappear.
1st class mail in the US is on the decline, and has been for years.
Bulk Mail, and mail using permits instead of stamps is a huge business for the US Post Office. Just look at all the junk mail you get.
Packages are a pretty big business for them as well.

They have to trim down to survive. Cut Saturday delivery, close some more old post offices, let some more employees go, and who knows what else.

Newspapers are a goner. The only paper I read is the Sunday New York Times.

Books, maybe in time, but lots of people still like to curl up with a paperback instead of a Kindle. Leave your $10 paperback somewhere, no big deal, leave your Kindle behind by accident, and that's another story.

Land line phones in the home, yeah, they are dying a slow death. But, the signal is typically always good, and the battery doesn't go dead. If they can figure out how to send text messages from a land line phone, they'll stay.

Not sure what to say about the Music business, or TV. I haven't watched Network TV in years. I do watch the discovery, history, science, TLC, and a few others like Public TV.

[PHC1]

I do miss the rotary dial telephone. Dialing the number gave people time to think why they are actually calling someone.

[jdandy]

Change is inevitable. No one crosses the country by wagon train any more, or rides a horse for primary transportation. Passenger ships travel between countries without wind in their sails, and trains don't burn wood and coal any longer, yet somehow we survived. We don't use blocked ice to cool our refrigerators, and we don't rotary dial a telephone any more, either. What ever changes transpire we will adapt, survive and prosper. Humans are intelligent, resilient, courageous and ingenious. We will be fine.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Change is inevitable. What ever changes transpire we will adapt, survive and prosper. Humans are intelligent, resilient, courageous and ingenious. We will be fine.

I'm personally not quite that optimistic.

What was it that Einstein said?

Oh yeah, ""Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

And also, "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by PHC1

I'm personally not quite that optimistic.

What was it that Einstein said?

Oh yeah, ""Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

And also, "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Serge.......Yep! And Einstein died just the rest of us will. Fresh minds will move on. 100 years from this very moment right now there won't be but a few humans still alive that are on this planet today. Such is life.

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Serge.......Yep! And Einstein died just the rest of us will. Fresh minds will move on. 100 years from this very moment right now there won't be but a few humans still alive that are on this planet today. Such is life.

My gut feeling is that we will manage to exterminate life and each other on this planet as the population keeps exploding into the future. Our planet is not able to sustain these numbers and no amount of genetically modified vegetables and fruit and hormone treated beef and poultry and farm raised fish will be enough... As things get worse, our "true human nature" will rear it's ugly head and the inevitable will happen... Things that will disappear? We will...