Things in LIFE are changing

 

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 2022.  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. Joined Handwriting (Cursive Writing) 
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)

10. 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 and again.

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

Logic is dead.

Excellence is punished.

Mediocrity is rewarded.

And dependency is to be revered.