The Going Going Gone List – Part 1

Now this is something that is going to be an ongoing event in Life As We No Longer Know It because the list just keeps on keeps growing.

The Post Office 1775-????????

Well, this one was a no brainer. Did they really think that they would be able to stay afloat with email versus escalating postal stamp prices? Email has been around since the early 70s and came more into prominence for the consumer in the late 80s early 90s…I got online in 91 through AOL. Can you believe that AOL is 28 years old?…Yep believe it. 

Now, how is the post office which is about to face hit the employee pension glacier going to keep itself afloat with all of this burgeoning technology? Well, first, we have to understand that packages aren't viral. So if the USPS became more of a say, Fed-Ex Kinkos, this would probably help. What about offering services like an internet café?

Postal package delivery is still cheaper than UPS and Fed-Ex…If the USPS doesn't get it together and make some major upgrades they will be gone, and our first Postmaster General, Benjamin Franklin will be rolling over in his grave.

List of USPS closures

 

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The Yellow Pages

Yes there's an app for that. And with so many of us electronically leashed through our cell phones, tablets and the internet what's the point? The phone book for me is just something I continue not to ask for, yet gets delivered that I throw in the recycling bin for collection. Back in the day, it was viable. Today, I can't even count on one finger recently where I was looking up a business and thought about going to the phone book as a resource. I'm just sayin'….

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Public Phones

 


They used to be everywhere…I may see one every once in a while…Sometimes I see the booth with no phone there: like an antique carcass of technology. The only sign of what had been.

 

 

 

 Watches

They make great collector items…I can't believe Timex watches are still around and they have a website!…I haven't seen many 20 something's wearing them, but in the next few years will they still be around? Doubt it.

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Spelling

With the advent of texting and abbreviating words-----do u thnk tht any1 will no hw 2 spll n the nxt 5 yrs?

 

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Hard copy magazines, books and newspapers

I've got a Kindle and an Ipad. I'm an avid reader…Do the math.

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DVDs and CDs

They WILL be gone…Notice how more streaming of movies is available through your phone, TV or gaming system or table? CDs? Going baby…

Everything is downloadable. Have you checked out the $5 bin at Walmart? There trying to get rid of all that stuff…It's not because they're rolling back those prices.

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Rotary Dial Phones

Although I found a site that makes new "old" phones, they pretty much have gone out to pasture. Whenever you see something that used to be popular with the word "vintage" before it, you pretty much know that it's gone on to become pricier than it was when it was a mainstay in our world…One thing I remember about these phones. They weighed a ton. You could kill someone with them…Seriously.

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Phone Receptionists

A lot of people lost jobs with this one. Remember when you could pleasantly talk about the weather with a phone receptionist? She would NEVER tell you to dial 1. 

We knew companies didn't want to talk to us when the Dial 1 virtual receptionist came on the scene…What creeps me out: she refers to herself as "I"…"Let me see if I can help you." And I break out in hives.

Privacy

Many of us aren’t really liking the changes to Facebook if they have  a personal page. For most of us, it presents an unrealistic view of the world cluttered with a scrolling time-line with non-news like who’s friends with who and who changed their profile picture. Who cares?…All most people want to do is connect. 

So what’s the scary side of this “new” change? Plenty, it’s called intrusion and the true compromise of privacy…Everybody can see what you’re saying and to whom… Many of us question, “Why?” The world we knew had something called privacy…What with companies selling your information for profit, we’ve become nothing more than ants under their microscope…We’ve just become subjects…Our children will know a different world when it comes to privacy… By the time they reach our age, they’ll realize that they’ve been had…Will we ever go back to a simpler place in time? Can  we? 

Don’t get me wrong, technology is great…I wouldn’t be able to communicate with you on such a broad scale were it not for the internet…But, somehow, the virtual world never developed boundaries…That’s the problem…So while it may feel ok to be LinkedIn, FB'd and Google plussed, you're really under the vision of the all seeing virtual "eye".