Seven things that may disappear in our lifetime.
- 20/3/2014 <--Prev : Next-->
The Post Office - when did you last visit a post office? To post a letter? To buy a radio license? I believe Post Offices worldwide are on the brink of extinction. Email and establishments like DHL and Fed Ex have taken over totally from the good old faithful Post Office.
2. The cheque - First world countries are already laying the groundwork to do away with cheques. 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
Our children simply don't read newspapers. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition like we did. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. Online publications have already met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid online subscription services.
4. The Book
Many people say they will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. We all said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. We just wanted our hard copy CD. But we quickly changed our minds when we discovered that we could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will probably 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 simply don't need it anymore. Most people keep their landline because they've always had it.
And besides all one's numbers are stored conveniently in one's mobile phone, no need to search for that elusive out of date telephone directory!!
6. Television
Revenues to the TV networks are down dramatically. 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.
7. Joined Handwriting (Cursive Writing)
Some schools no longer teach "joined handwriting" because nearly everything is done now on computers or keyboards of some type.
8. Privacy
If there was ever a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. 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 'Big Brother' knows who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View.
