Changing Times . . .

For many years, we as a society assumed certain things were set in concrete and would never change. Were we ever wrong?!?! The experts are warning us that we can expect the death of certain things in our lifetime . . . and just a few years ago no one would have believed that possible. Here is the list of near-dead things we believed would last forever;

1. The Post Office . . . It is too crazy for us to even believe, but the postal system is broke, is a dismal failure, and simply cannot continue to stay in service. Technology has passed it by and left it standing in the smoke and ashes. The primary mail we get via the postal system today is junk mail and bills. Email, FedEx, and UPS have pretty much taken over our more important correspondences. Mail is expensive and inefficient. I mailed a payroll pack to Austin last April and it still has not made its way there; and it has not been returned here either!

2. Payment by check . . . We are moving closer and closer to a cashless society and more and more that means plastic. Britain is already full-swing into eliminating checks by 2018. Financial institutions spend a fortunate processing and verifying checks. The end of checks plays into the death of the Post Office.

3. The newspaper . . . The younger generation simply does not read the newspaper—other than electronically! They do not subscribe to the paper, and it will go the way of the local milkman and laundryman – a thing of the past. The younger generation has many other means of getting the news . . . much faster . . . more reliable . . . and in a more preferred method. This generation just likes mobile devices and Internet sources.

4. The Book—in hardback and paperback. As difficult as it is for some of us to get our minds around, there are literally book stores online! Book stores that allow a customer to read an entire chapter of a book prior to purchase; then if one likes the book, it can be bought for less than the printed copy. There is no book to leave behind or to lose. There is no need for book-shelves and no worry that someone will steal your book.

5. The land-line telephone . . . due to cell phones being so convenient, many folks don’t even bother with keeping a land-line any longer. Generally, those of us who do simply do so just because we have had it for so long. It seems like every annoying call from a telemarketer moves me closer to getting rid of mine. It just makes less and less sense.

6. Music . . . The saddest part of the change story is that the music industry is dying a slow death from a lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Moreover, there are struggles with illegal downloads, greed, and corruption and the record labels and radio conglomerates are just self-destructing. There is a strong push of garbage called “rap” that is not music at all. The push of this trash is also taking a toll. For more information on this sad situation please see the book, “Appetite for Self Destruction,” by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, “Before the Music Dies.”

7. Television revenues . . . to the networks are dying a rapid death. More and more people are watching movies from their computers, Red Box rentals, Netflix, and Apple TV; or, playing games from their mobile devices and doing other things besides watching network television. Prime time has degenerated and cable fees have escalated through the roof . . . and there is a TV ad every four minutes and 30 seconds! Consumer selected and controlled movies are the future . . . not network TV.

8. The things we own . . . many of the things we once “owned” are today now simply “in our lives” . . . photos . . . music . . . documents . . . movies . . . games . . . and movies. Today we simply store these things in our clouds! We pay a fee which permits us to live in this virtual world, and we can have access to our “stuff” anytime, from any place, with a laptop or a mobile device! There was a time when we had large amounts of money invested in music in the form of records, then 8-track tapes, then cassettes, then CD’s. We also had boxes of movies in VHS tapes and DVD’s. Suddenly, we have gone from “owning stuff” to simply “storing stuff.”

9. Joined handwriting (cursive) . . . handwriting is already gone in some schools, and there is a growing debate about the need to even continue teaching spelling and grammar in other schools. The argument is made that those things simply are not very important in our world today as everything is being done on a keyboard, and grammar and spell check are common tools.

10. Privacy . . . Truth be told we haven’t had much of this for some time. There are cameras on the streets, in most buildings, built in our computers, and into our mobile phones. If you purchase something on-line they instantly have you in a dozen profiles. Open an email and suddenly, you are in a dozen other lists and later today you will receive two dozen other emails on similar related topics.

We are living in changing times . . . and It Seems to Me . . . that not all changes are for the better . . . it just seems as if Logic is dead . . . Excellence is being punished . . . Mediocre is being rewarded . . . and Dependency seems to be respected.

It Seems to Me . . . that there isn’t much like it was when I was a kid.

 

One thought on “Changing Times . . .

  1. Thanks for a marvelous posting! I certainly enjoyed reading it, you’re a great author.I will be
    sure to bookmark your blog and will often come back very soon. I want to encourage you to ultimately continue your great job, have a nice weekend!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.