Jan. 18, 2015

David M. Adam, Jr.

ADD INTERNATIONAL

WASHINGTON, D.C.

TEL.#1 703-2431999

SKYPE:addintlusa

 

Subject:  U ARE ABOUT TO LOSE 10 THINGS THAT YOU ALWAYS DEPEND ON

 

 Something to ponder------- Ten Things That Will Disappear In Our Lifetime This is USA oriented, but Canada & the rest will not be far behind.   Whether

these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them.

But, ready or not, here they come. Maybe not in the seniors of today lifetimes but more likely in our children’s.

 

 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 wayto 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 Check

Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with check by 2018. 

It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks.  Plastic cards and online transactions will

lead to the eventual demise of the check.  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 cellphone. 

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".