Maybe, maybe not

I got this email last week, about things that will disappear in the next 10 years. Like most things these day, it was kind of misleading. And of course, it's just somebody's  opinion. Anyway, it was interesting and it made me think about those things.

So let's see;

1.      The Post Office

Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in

financial trouble 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.

Junk mail is all about advertising and marketing. That's not going away. And bills aren't going away either. In my opinion, there are still plenty of people that get their bills via snail mail. But I'll buy that the Post Office, as we know, will definitely go away.  

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.

Yeah, I buy that. But not using checks won't lead to the death of the Post Office.

3.      The Newspaper

The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly

don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. It will 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.

They got that right - the younger generation doesn't read the paper. Hell, I don't read the paper. I find all the news I need, online. I don't believe that they'll pay for an online version though.

                                                                                        

4.      The Book

You say you will never give up the physical book 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 I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home

to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books.

I hope not. While I can admit that I love being able to read on my Kindle, at night, in bed, I still love having books. I know avid readers love having tablets to read on. I get it. I believe this could be true. But it would make me sad.

                                                                            

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 the extra service. All the

cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell

provider for no charge against your minutes.

I haven't had a land line in about 10 years. I don't miss it. buh bye

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 the public is familiar with, older established artists. 

This is misleading. Music is NOT going away. Please. The music industry is changing though. Young people are finding new artists all the time. Just not through the traditional music industry. And those artists, don't want to be a part of the "music industry" anyway. Yes, I can see music radio corporations failing though. Greed ruins everything.

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 to

take up the time usually 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.

Again, misleading. TV isn't going away. But certainly, cable companies need to change their business models to survive! I can watch enough on Netflix and Hulu and On Demand, that I could easily, and happily, get rid of 2/3 of my cable channels! For sure, people are tired of having to pay for a 100 channels to just to watch 3 of them.

  

8.      The "Things" You Own

Many of the very possessions 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 this is changing. Apple,

Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services."

It means 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. In this virtual world, you can

access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or

handheld device. This is 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 a photo album, grab a

book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

For me, this is just another example of how I want to embrace technology,

but it's so creepy!! I have at least a dozen movies that I "own" digitally. I like it too! Same for some "e-books" I have.

  

9.      Joined Handwriting

Already gone in some schools who no longer teach "joined handwriting"

because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some

type (pun not intended)
I think they've been talking about this for too long.

10.   Privacy

If there ever was a concept we can look back on nostalgically, it would be

privacy. It'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 24/7, "They" know who you are

and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the

Google Street View. The TV show "Person of Interest" isn't as far out as you

may think. 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.
Privacy is just an illusion. It always has been. It's just more obvious now!