Things that may disappear in our lifetime!

[glcon]

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 on long term basis. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just 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 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. "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.

All we will have left that can't be changed are "Memories".....

glcon Reviewed by glcon on 14th Dec 2011. Things that may disappear in our lifetime! 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 on long term basis. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just 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. Rating: 5

[pioneer_fawad]

all point from 1-8 exists in pakistan

but point 9 disappears

[Xerosis]

Post Office - Will never go away. It's government regulated and gives thousands of jobs. People on eBay ship USPS all the time. They're a lot cheaper then UPS/Fedex. Also, post offices are located in EVERY city, including rural towns. The closest Fedex hub to me is an hour an a half away. Plus, local letters?

2. Possible.

3. Possible.

4. It will never happen. It's a pain in the balls to read school books on the computer. Highlighting, taking notes, reading is much easier from a book. You have to factor in pirating, too. Book companies purposely don't produce a digital copy for this reason. I hate the strain it gives my eyes while reading on a computer. I like the natural sunlight projecting on my books. I rarely read and I know for a fact it ain't gonna disappear.

5. Businesses will continue to use land lines. Land lines don't 'track' minutes. You've got unlimited to call your other friends and family. When a power outage occurs, renders cellphones useless, but landlines are in tact. Weird huh? Check out the DTE power outage years ago. Don't forget telemarketers. They aren't allowed to call your cellphone, thus they must spam your land line.

6. It won't ever die, it'll get crappier, but won't die.

7. Netflix doesn't stream sports. The super bowl makes millions. People watch all the time. Netflix is crap, it only has old stuff. You can't get up to date material unless your watching on TV. Don't forget that online streaming that isn't paid is full of advertisements. Netflix rips their moves from like stars.

8. A lot of things will go cloud, but not necessarily everything. Let's all put all our confidential information in a cloud and get hacked. Ftw?

[Breaking Bad]

lol if television ends how can we watch Simpsons Season 120?

[Dean2k]

All will remain I think, but privacy - that went a long time ago.

[filescan]

Post Office - Will never go away. It's government regulated and gives thousands of jobs. People on eBay ship USPS all the time. They're a lot cheaper then UPS/Fedex. Also, post offices are located in EVERY city, including rural towns. The closest Fedex hub to me is an hour an a half away. Plus, local letters?

2. Possible.

3. Possible.

4. It will never happen. It's a pain in the balls to read school books on the computer. Highlighting, taking notes, reading is much easier from a book. You have to factor in pirating, too. Book companies purposely don't produce a digital copy for this reason. I hate the strain it gives my eyes while reading on a computer. I like the natural sunlight projecting on my books. I rarely read and I know for a fact it ain't gonna disappear.

5. Businesses will continue to use land lines. Land lines don't 'track' minutes. You've got unlimited to call your other friends and family. When a power outage occurs, renders cellphones useless, but landlines are in tact. Weird huh? Check out the DTE power outage years ago. Don't forget telemarketers. They aren't allowed to call your cellphone, thus they must spam your land line.

6. It won't ever die, it'll get crappier, but won't die.

7. Netflix doesn't stream sports. The super bowl makes millions. People watch all the time. Netflix is crap, it only has old stuff. You can't get up to date material unless your watching on TV. Don't forget that online streaming that isn't paid is full of advertisements. Netflix rips their moves from like stars.

8. A lot of things will go cloud, but not necessarily everything. Let's all put all our confidential information in a cloud and get hacked. Ftw?

agree with you buddy

[JamieSanders]

Hey Guys

I'm new. Been lurking awhile. But this post made me leap out and respond.

While the actual fate of the items on your list remains unseen, I think these are powerful things to think about. And the demise of any of these is not unrealistic. Just watched a show about the struggling New York Times.

The world is definitely changing. Made me think maybe people should wake up before the entire place disappears into a cyber-blip. The internet is sucking everything in! Stores, the media, entertainment, communications.

Anyway, this is very thought-provoking. If not a bit disturbing.

Have a good one!

[Drinkordie]

For those that cant read

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk2X-EkKCrw[/ame]

[nEw_boY]

About books, it wont happen any time for sure.
Neither will television die, nor will music industry for sure.

[nYXem]

2 and 5 are possible to get extinct.
But others, trust me, it will never happen.