[... 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 cheques 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 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're
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 simply self-destruction. 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 all 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 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 possibly can't be changed
are Memories.
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