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The Nine Things That Will Disappear in Our Lifetime

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Nucazza LLP & Home Buying Evolution, & Family Abstract, Inc

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
http://www.familyabstract.comGet 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 Check

http://www.nucazza.comMost banks are 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 on-line transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the checks. 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 Alternative Compensation, Ala Carte Real Estate, Rebatingdoesn'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 on-line, 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
http://www.familyabstract.comYou 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 on-line 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 phonemake 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

No MusicThis 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 "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 a sseen on TVdramatically. 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 on-line and through Netflix. (possibly number 10).


8. The "Things" That You Own
Thing 1 and Thing 2Many 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. Privacy
If there ever was a concept that Privacy Cartoonwe 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.

10. I'll leave this for you, what do you think will be number 10?

 


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

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Glenn Freezman
Family Abstract, Inc. - Horsham, PA

I often think about Title Insurance as I know it, being number 10?  There will come a time that via computerized cloud searching and recording, Mismo docs, Tele-Conference closings, IDX for all document interaction and the world of tools that are on the horizon but have not been implemented yet, we as an industry are done.  I have 3 years until my kids are done college.  I can only hope that number 10, if I am right doesn't happen until after graduation.

Nov 07, 2011 04:22 AM
Laura Gray
RE/MAX Realty Group - Gaithersburg, MD

10. Automobiles that run on gasoline !

 

But eventually at some point many of these items will return as there will not be enough power to supply the demand for consumption.

Nov 07, 2011 04:23 AM
Glenn Freezman
Family Abstract, Inc. - Horsham, PA

Laura, Interesting, which ones do you think will come back for a command performance?

Nov 07, 2011 04:26 AM
Li Read
Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring) - Salt Spring Island, BC
Caring expertise...knowledge for you!

Very interesting...including that lack of privacy reminder.  

Nov 07, 2011 05:13 AM
Glenn Freezman
Nucazza LLP & Home Buying Evolution, & Family Abstract, Inc - Fort Washington, PA

See to Sky, I wonder how long before we all want number 9 back?

Nov 07, 2011 05:32 AM
Carla Harbert
www.LorainCountyHomeSales.com - Avon, OH
RE/MAX Omega: Lorain-Medina County Area

Many video/dvd stores are closing up - netflix, redbox, blockbuster online is the new improved technology.

Nov 07, 2011 05:56 AM
Glenn Freezman
Nucazza LLP & Home Buying Evolution, & Family Abstract, Inc - Fort Washington, PA

Carla, and furthermore the replacements are becoming challenged and possible out, such as Netflix? 

Nov 07, 2011 06:08 AM
Laura Sargent
Carolina One Real Estate - Mount Pleasant, SC

Some I've already forgotten but the others.... Yes, you may be right... but I'm not ready to not do Sudoku in my daily!!!!

Nov 08, 2011 03:56 PM
Glenn Freezman
Family Abstract, Inc. - Horsham, PA

Laura, I hear they are coming up with a new crossword puzzler for the Nook, brought to you by Sudoky Daily!  OK, i made that up, but I do fear they will remove your "cheese"

Nov 09, 2011 02:32 AM
Bob Caldwell
Fitzgerald Financial, a Division of Monarch Bank - Annapolis, MD
VA Mortgage Specialist and Military Relocation Services
Laura, I agree that gasoline fueled cars will be replaced (within two decades probably) with electric and other "new" engery technologies.
Apr 01, 2012 01:07 PM
Bob Crane
Woodland Management Service / Woodland Real Estate, KW Diversified - Stevens Point, WI
Forestland Experts! 715-204-9671

Laura definately the most entertaining blog I have read today, my wife and I got quite a laugh out of it. Some of these things I am sad to see go yet others I think should have been gone a lot sooner.

Apr 01, 2012 09:55 PM