The End of Another Decade
I was listening to a local radio show today and they were discussing the fact that we are nearing the end of another decade. They began to discuss the items that, although mainstay 10 years ago, are now either obsolete or almost.
I thought this was pretty interesting. Here are some of the things they listed: Desk and Wall Calendars (most folks use their phones or computer), Y2K fears (remember that craziness?), Dial up modems, paying for email, movie rental stores, floppy discs, chalk boards (I know my daughter's school uses smart boards-really cool-almost makes me want to teach), maps, writing checks, dot matrix printers (although I have one in my work van that hates me), car mounted phones, or how about The World Trade Center.
Locally here in Charleston, the Plex is gone, as is Manifest Discs and Tapes, the Grace and Pearman bridges are now a thing of the past. We have our new "Cuzway" or Arthur Ravenel Bridge as it is formally known, a huge improvement!
Personally it has been a huge decade for me. As we near the end of 2009, I think back to where I was at the end of 1999. My husband and I had been dating for almost a year (we met at a party on New Year's Eve), I was still living in a rented townhouse, had only been in this city for about 2 years, had 2 cats (I now, sadly, have none-a fact my husband is quite happy about!), didn't have any children, worked for my family business, hadn't lost 2 uncles and a Dad, hadn't yet met some of my closest friends, and I was still in my 20's. I really cannot believe how monumentally my life has changed in the past 10 years, it doesn't seem possible that so much has happened in such a relatively short time.
I cannot even begin to fathom what the next 10 years holds in store for me. My children will be 17, 12 and 11...seems impossible! I will have been married almost 19 years, again, crazy and who knows what else. I also cannot imagine what everyday items that we are using today will be nonexistent in 10 years. How about politics? Who will be our leaders? What will happen in Iraq? Afghanistan? Our borders? Healthcare? The list goes on and on...
How about you, how has this decade treated you? Can you think of anything else that has become obsolete in the past 10 years?
I thought this was pretty interesting. Here are some of the things they listed: Desk and Wall Calendars (most folks use their phones or computer), Y2K fears (remember that craziness?), Dial up modems, paying for email, movie rental stores, floppy discs, chalk boards (I know my daughter's school uses smart boards-really cool-almost makes me want to teach), maps, writing checks, dot matrix printers (although I have one in my work van that hates me), car mounted phones, or how about The World Trade Center.
2 comments:
I still use regular calendars/date books for checking up on stuff, but I am a list-maker and I NEED my real list I can see. But, in the next few years, I see newspapers and perhaps even magazines becoming obsolete. You can find what you need to know online these days. I use my laptop as my own personal lifeline to news, entertainment, research, etc. I love it!
Setting your VCR to record a show...VCR's for that matter - and missing shows (Thanks to DVR)...Pocket Pagers, "Car" phones (you know, the kind that really weren't portable without a backpack), buying all your music from a record store, needing a phone line to access the internet, smoking in public places...
What I predict will be gone in ten years? Record stores, paying for data overages on laptop air cards, CR Tube TV's (almost gone now), actually using a physical medium to retrieve data (i.e. DVD, CD), a two-party-only political system, NEW gas-fueled vehicles (gas car drivers will probably be stigmatized along with remaining smokers), AOL, Yellow Pages (the paper kind - or at least automatic delivery to every damn address), 35mm film, paying for internet in hotels.. I could do this all night, this is fun!
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