| Approaching Extinction
August 26, 2010
Do you still have a home phone…answering machine…dial up internet access? If you answered yes to any of these you are fast becoming the minority because these items and more are approaching extinction. Technology is changing at ‘download’ speeds nowadays, and, although you don’t have to be a rocket scientist, you do have to be somewhat ‘gadget’ literate just to keep up. In fact, I’m fairly certain eventually the umbilical cord will be replaced by a USB cable.
And because of this rapidly increasing advancement in technology some of the old tried and true ways of doing things are falling by the wayside, even becoming extinct. The statistics alone on the number of personal computers in homes is mind boggling. Because of this fact, items like the yellow pages and classified ads may soon be a trivial pursuit question. A harbinger of the future that is signaling the end of the paper world as we know it; newspapers may be next. Yikes!
And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but movie rental stores are becoming few and far between. Meanwhile, companies like Netflix are driving nails in the coffin of rental giants such as Blockbuster which is sadly being forced to close stores by the hundreds across the country.
Even I’ll admit I gave up a home phone years ago and along with it the dreaded answering machine. Why pay for something as inconvenient as a landline when cell phones and printer/fax combos do the same thing. It’s redundant! Besides when you can get a phone call while you’re using a public restroom, life doesn’t get more convenient than that. My mom still doesn’t ‘get it’ though. Every time she calls me on my cell she says, “Oh, you’re home.”
I do, however, still have a VCR and even own tapes of my favorite dance movies. Dickens, these days, the only places you can find blank VHS tapes are Wal-Mart or Radio Shack. Speaking of tapes, my mother owns a stereo with an 8-track player and she still listens to tapes. On the other hand, dad has a cell, a digital camera and a laptop. Yep, that’s why my mother was the inspiration for my cartoon character Mumsy. She’s endearing. By the way, how’s your Morse Code? Well, even though it’s no longer a requirement to hold a ham radio license, amateur radio has seen a major decline over the years. Let’s face it; the internet has taken over the world. Children today are practically born with an iPod nano in their hand, and they know how to use it!
Come to think of it, I believe I purchased the last film camera on the planet. (Well, at Wal-Mart anyway.) Yes, the world has gone digital and even though I also own a digital camera, I enjoy the surprise of film development and seeing pictures I forgot I took. (Always an “ah-ha” moment.) I just hope they don’t stop selling film, because I don’t appreciate being forced into technology against my will. Take writing checks for instance. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “You don’t have to fill that check out.” Yes I do. I have duplicates. If I don’t fill out the check, I won’t remember where I’ve been or how much it cost me to be there. So STOP telling me NOT to fill out my check!
Speaking of writing, the saddest extinction of them all is the personally hand written letter. In 2004, half-a-trillion text messages were sent, and that was six years ago. (I even had to switch to unlimited text. Dickens, now my thumb is getting carpal tunnel.) Then in 2006, a research group estimated that, worldwide, 183 billion e-mails were sent each day. (Wow, that’s two million per second.) By the following November approximately 3.3 billion of us owned cell phones. So where in this electronic babble is there room for the hand-written letter? Hey, let’s write one now… or not.
Other things on the verge of extinction in this country are wild horses (say awwww), drive-in theaters with the last one built in 2005 (I wouldn’t have thought it was that recently. I haven’t been in the backseat at a drive-in since… well, never mind). Also, mumps and measles fortunately for us, are disappearing, but sadly so is the honey bee. Yikes, honey bees are essential to our food supply. Therefore, I’m starting a campaign to “Stop killing bees!” Wasps are okay. Ants, most definitely… and spiders… always!
Can you imagine…explaining 8-track tapes to children who own iPods?
Smiling will never be extinct!
CanYouImagine@charter.net | www.BobbiGSpeaks.com | www.theBobbiGspot.com |
