COMING CHANGES IN OUR LIVES

COMING CHANGES IN OUR LIVES
Whether  these changes are good
or bad depends in part on how we
adapt to them but, ready or not,
here they come!

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 2018. 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  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 like to hear it. Greed
and corruption is the problem. The record labels  and the radio
conglomerates simply self-destruction. Over 40% of the music
purchased today are "catalog 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 their 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 hand held
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.  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.  And "They" will try to get you to buy
something else.  Again and again.  All we will have that can't be
changed are Memories.

   SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.....
MOST OF THESE THINGS ARE ALREADY TAKING PLACE AND
THE OUTCOME  IS SET IN STONE .