These are things our daughter and her soon to be little brother or sister may never get to experience.... nor will they really have any reason too. Technology is taking over the world. ::sigh::
VCRs and VHS Tapes: 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. 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." (Although we currently have a VCR/TV combo in the spare bedroom, it was given to us by a coworker along with some Baby Einstein VHS tapes. I think we've watched them maybe 4 or 5 times. DVDs are just easier and you don't have to rewind them over and over. )
Travel agents: While not dead today, this profession is one of many that's been decimated by the Internet. When it's time for their honeymoon, will those born in 2011 be able to find one? (When we got married, we set up all of our honeymoon plans online or over the phone and we even had a Honeymoon Registry online. That was complete unheard of just a couple of years ago.)
The separation of work and home: When you're carrying an email-equipped computer in your pocket, it's not just your friends who can find you -- so can your boss. For kids born this year, the wall between office and home will be blurry indeed.
Bookstores: 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 the pace of bookstore closings is increasing. Sure, there may still be books, magazines and newspapers -- but for those born today, stores that exist solely to sell them will be as numerous as record stores are now.
Movie rental stores: You actually got in your car and drove someplace just to rent a movie?
Watches: Maybe as quaint jewelry, but the correct time is on your smartphone, which is pretty much always in your hand.
Paper maps: At one time these were available free at every gas station. They're practically obsolete today, and the next generation will probably have to visit a museum to find one.
Landline phones: Why would you pay $35 every month to have a phone that plugs into a wall? For those born today, this will be a silly concept.
Long distance: Thanks to the Internet, the days of paying more to talk to somebody in the next city, state, or even country are limited.
Newspaper classifieds: The days are gone when you have to buy a bunch of newsprint just to see what's for sale.
Dial-up Internet: While not everyone is on broadband, it won't be long before dial-up Internet goes the way of the plug-in phone.
Encyclopedias: Imagine a time when you had to buy expensive books that were outdated before the ink was dry. This will be a nonsense term for babies born today.
Forgotten friends: Remember when an old friend would bring up someone you went to high school with, and you'd say, "Oh yeah, I forgot about them!" The next generation will automatically be in touch with everyone they've ever known even slightly via Facebook.
Forgotten anything else: Kids born this year will never know what it was like to stand in a bar and incessantly argue the unknowable. Today the world's collective knowledge is on the computer in your pocket or purse. And since you have it with you at all times, why bother remembering anything?
The evening news: The news is on 24/7. And if you're not home to watch it, that's OK -- it's on the smartphone in your pocket.
CDs: First records, then 8-track, then cassette, then CDs -- replacing your music collection used to be an expensive pastime. Now it's cheap(er) and as close as the nearest Internet connection.
Film and film cameras: For the purist, perhaps, but for kids born today, the word "film" will mean nothing.
Yellow/White Pages and Address 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.
Catalogs: There's no need to send me a book in the mail when I can see everything you have for sale anywhere, anytime. If you want to remind me to look at it, send me an email.
Fax machines: Can you say "scan," ".pdf" and "email?"
One picture to a frame: Such a waste of wall/counter/desk space to have a separate frame around each picture. Eight gigabytes of pictures and/or video in a digital frame encompassing every person you've ever met and everything you've ever done -- now, that's efficient. Especially compared to what we used to do: put our friends and relatives together in a room and force them to watch what we called a "slide show" or "home movies."
Wires: Wires connecting phones to walls? Wires connecting computers, TVs, stereos, and other electronics to each other? Wires connecting computers to the Internet? To kids born in 2011, that will make as much sense as an electric car trailing an extension cord.
Hand-written letters: For that matter, hand-written anything. When was the last time you wrote cursive? In fact, do you even know what the word "cursive" means? Kids born in 2011 won't -- but they'll put you to shame on a tiny keyboard.
Talking to one person at a time: Remember when it was rude to be with one person while talking to another on the phone? Kids born today will just assume that you're supposed to use texting to maintain contact with five or six other people while pretending to pay attention to the person you happen to be physically next to.
Retirement plans: Yes, Johnny, there was a time when all you had to do was work at the same place for 20 years and they'd send you a check every month for as long as you lived. In fact, some companies would even pay your medical bills, too!
Mail: What's left when you take the mail you receive today, then subtract the bills you could be paying online, the checks you could be having direct-deposited, and the junk mail you could be receiving as junk email? Answer: A bloated bureaucracy that loses billions of taxpayer dollars annually.
Commercials on TV: They're terrifically expensive, easily avoided with DVRs, and inefficiently target mass audiences. Unless somebody comes up with a way to force you to watch them -- as with video on the Internet -- who's going to pay for them?
Hiding: Not long ago, if you didn't answer your home phone, that was that -- nobody knew if you were alive or dead, much less where you might be. Now your phone is not only in your pocket, it can potentially tell everyone -- including advertisers -- exactly where you are.
NASA Shuttle launches: The final shuttle Atlantis lands at Kennedy Space Center tomorrow at 5:56am.
Saturday morning cartoons: Why wait for Saturday when you can watch them all day everyday if you want to?
Cassette Tapes: You think CDs are going out of style... at least the kids will know what they were. They won't be able to fathom what Cassette Tapes were used for. You had to wind them back up if they got stuck in the tapedeck and if you were lucky they would play again? What the heck is a tape deck again and why would it eat the tapes? That makes no sense, mom.
Credit: Stacy Johnson with MoneyTalksNews and Bianca Bosker with The Huffington Post
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