Happy New Year to one and all! 2011 is gonna be a good one, I can feel it! Hope you got your resolutions in order...
I want to begin by saying THANK YOU to all of you who posted a review on Yelp. I blushed reading them all. You are all very generous (and creative) in your words. :)
That said, many if not all of them ended up "filtered" - an ongoing struggle I have been having with Yelp. This means they will not be on the front page of reviews. I have written them and they have their reasons, and they claim that they may all show up on the front page, but hard to control it. Either way, my offer still stands and so doth my gratitude. (And those of you who still want to write something, feel free!).
Oh, and an even bigger thank you to those who donated to Senior Surf. Cheers!
Now on with the show...
-Dave
"A computer once beat me at chess,
but it was no match for me at kick boxing"
-Emo Philips
Another One Bites the Dust:
13 Things That Have Become (more or less) Obsolete in the last Decade
The last ten years have brought us a windfall of new gadgets and gizmos, and with them, a new way of life.
Since 2000, we've gained iPods and iPads, Travelocity and Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare, BlackBerry smartphones and Android devices, Xboxes and Wiis, among many other new services, sites, and electronics.
We're now poking, tweeting, Googling, and Skyping (10 years ago, they would think you were coo-coo).
But in that time we've also changed our habits and lost a few things, too. As we look forward to 2011, let's take a look back at the things that have become obsolete (some of the these items were originally featured on an earlier list here).
VCR/VHS
The DVD was invented in 1995, introduced in the United States in 1997, and, by the early 2000s, had generally overtaken VHS tapes as the video format of choice for consumers. In 2005, the Washington Post penned an obituary of sorts for the VHS tape, writing, "VHS -- the beloved videotape format that bravely won the war against Betamax and charmed millions of Americans by allowing them to enjoy mindless Hollywood entertainment without leaving their homes -- has died at the age of 29. It passed away peacefully after a long illness caused by chronic technological insignificance and a lack of director's commentary tracks." The president of the Video Software Dealers Association told the Post he thought 2006 would be "the last year that there are major releases on VHS, and there won't be many of those."
Travel Agents
The proliferation of sites like Kayak, Orbitz, Travelocity, and Hipmunk, which have empowered consumers to find their own fares and easily book their own flights, together with the rise of websites and apps that give travelers the information they need to plan their own itineraries, have changed the travel industry in drastic ways. The days of recruiting a travel agent to book flights, find hotels, and organize tours are on their way out--and already gone for many.
Forgetting Stuff
"The web means the end of forgetting," wrote the New York Times earlier this year. "The Internet records everything and forgets nothing." Indeed, increasingly there's a digital copy of everything we do: the emails we send, the phone calls we make, the places we go, the pictures we take, the opinions we write. Google CEO Eric Schmidt even suggested (in what he later said was a joke) that young people ought to be able to change their names when they hit adulthood in order to escape their "permanent record" on the Internet. We can collect data on everything from our sleep habits to our spending, making it harder than ever for us--and the Internet--to forget what we've said, purchased, or done.
Bookstore Shopping
The last decade has brought bad news for bookstore-browsing bookworms. The rise of online retailers like Amazon, which offers bargain-basement prices on books and other items, and the increasing popularity of ebooks has put pressure on bookstores and put many of them out of business. Publishing industry insider Mike Shatzkin predicts, "what brick-and-mortar booksellers will experience in the first six months of 2011 will be the most difficult time they've ever seen" and, as HuffPostBooks wrote here, the pace of bookstore closings is increasing.
Maps
GPS devices keep getting cheaper, smaller, and more portable. We have GPS in our cars and on our phones. We use mobile maps for everything from cross-country trips to tracking down restaurants, and employ services like Google Maps and Mapquest to give us customized routes. Asking for directions, carrying around paper maps, and even getting lost are all increasingly obsolete.
Calling
Text messaging, BlackBerry Messaging, Instant Messaging, Tweeting, Facebook messaging, and emailing have taken over communication and opened up new avenues for getting in touch. The popularity of text messaging is gradually edging out calling (and even talking face to face): The AP wrote in April 2010, "The frequency with which teens text has overtaken every other form of interaction, including instant messaging and talking face-to-face, according to a study released Tuesday by researchers at Pew Research Center and the University of Michigan."
Classified Ads
Not only have ad dollars followed audiences online, but the expansion of Craigslist -- from one city, San Francisco, to over 500 -- has sent chills down the spines of newspaper publishers everywhere, thinning newspapers and reducing ad sales.
Dial-up Modems (you know who you are!)
It's older and slower than the available alternatives, and on its way out. A 2008 study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that just 10% of Americans used dial-up Internet. Nostalgic? Listen to its beeps, fuzz, and hums on YouTube.
Encyclopedias
Users have traded Britannicas on the bookshelf for the collaboratively-built, online-only Wikipedia.
CD's
CDs, and the stores that sold them, have all but been replaced by digital music that can be downloaded online, one track at a time.
Landline Phones
While many still rely on landlines--especially in areas where cellphone service is spotty--users are increasingly unplugging. As the AP explained, a recent survey found, "In a first for any age group, more than half of Americans age 25-29 live in households with cell phones but no traditional landline telephones."
Phone Books
There was a time when "let your fingers do the walking" meant opening a phone book -- not typing in a search query. Phone books, address books, and the Yellow Pages have been made obsolete, their information transferred from paper onto smartphones, and the web.
Hand-written Letters
Love letters, thank you notes, and invitations have gone being hand-written to typed, and from the mailbox to the inbox. Sending online messages is a bargain next to $.44 stamp.
Got one you'd like to add to the list? Send 'em my way!
This list was originally published in the HuffPost here.
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