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friendfeedWhat You Won’t See in 2018…part 1
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
by Jeff
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Ever since I saw Back To The Future at the age of 14, I’ve always wanted to time travel. Just being able to go anywhere in time and observe the world just fascinates me.
However I don’t know how to make a flux capacitor, have no access to plutonium, and can’t afford a 25 year old Delorean, so all I can do is predict the future. When I say predict the future I don’t mean boring stuff like if we’ll solve the issue of global warming or if President Obama will be elected to a second term. I mean stuff that won’t be used anymore in 10 years. For instance, when was the last time you actually rented a VHS movie? Yeah about 10 years ago.
So here’s a list of the things that we use everyday that I think will be dinosaurs in 2018:
The Phone Company
Ma Bell ain’t what she used to be. In 10 years will anyone have a land line, copper wire phone? Most people I know are much easier to reach on their wireless phones than a home based phone, and a lot of people I know don’t even have a land line. Then there are people like me that use Voice over IP for just $15 a month. Suck it Ma Bell.
The Compact Disc
I don’t even know why we are still using this in 2008. Back in 1986 it was the best thing since vinyl, but in 2008 isn’t most music bought on the Internet (or downloaded illegally off the Internet)? These days if you win a CD from a radio station, it costs you more money in gas to drive to the station to pick it up then it would to buy it on iTunes and have it in five minutes.
As for computer software on CD, that’s going away too. Online distribution of software is already taking over, and it feeds that instant gratification need that I have way too much of. In 2018 kids will be asking "Dad, what was it like only being able to have 12 songs to play at a time?"
Newspapers
Well newspapers won’t be totally gone in 2018, but they already have one foot in the grave as it is. How many people under the age of 30 do you know who read the local newspaper every single day? Some newspapers already know they are a dying breed and are desperately trying to cater to the young tech-savy crowd. Some pull it off, others fail miserably.
Anytime you pick up a newspaper you’re reading old news. The information age demands news now. In depth coverage of stories can be found on many other free alternatives. Let’s face the reality people. The only real reason to get the paper these days is for Peanuts re-runs, death notices, and coupons, two of which can be found from other sources.
Newspapers in 2018 won’t be nearly as news focused and will be available online or delivered via a feed to some portable device that is actually worth reading a paper on. Of course they won’t be on paper anymore, but we’ll still call them newspapers, for the same reason every time we record something on the DVR we say we’re "taping" it.
Video Stores
Remember in the early 80’s when you would go to the video store and pick out a movie on VHS from their wide selection of twenty films, and also rent the VCR? It was a different time my friends, and in 2018, the word Blockbuster will once again mean a hugely successful movie rather than a chain of video rental stores.
Ever since someone realized you can easily mail a DVD and invented Netflix, video rental stores have been closing one after another. In 2018, you won’t even have to wait a day to get that red envelope in the mail. I’m not even waiting now for some things. I bought the Roku Netflix player and am watching movies and tv shows in my "Watch Now" queue on Netflix, um, now. On my TV. That’s freakin’ awesome! Sure it’s VHS quality right now, so I’m a little early 80’s all over again, but with increased bandwidth by 2018, HD streaming quality is a given and you’ll no longer be waiting at the mailbox like a crack addict for that next red envelope to show up.
So this is just the half of what I predict you won’t find in 2018. If you read this far, you might actually be interested to hear what else I think will go away in the future with part 2 of this intriguing tale. If you aren’t interested, then you’ll know to avoid it when you see the headline, hopefully posted here before 2018.
