Sunday, February 24, 2013

An Ode to All The Things That Are Disappearing So Quickly


So much goes by the wayside so quickly these days.

I am reminded of that every time I pass an empty Blockbuster storefront.

Or the very sad man sitting in the entrance of my local grocery store trying to give away free paper copies of Houston’s last daily newspaper, the Chronicle. (Dudes, you have to make everything available online and offer an online-only subscription. I don’t want to deal with all that paper. Plus, the online version has comments and links.)

When was the last time you saw a phone with a cord?

The last time I sent an email to an AOL address, it was to a 90-year-old man, an amazing 90-year-old man, but, still, 90.

What else is disappearing?

Answering machines, of course. And beepers. And landlines.

DVDs and CDs. The last time I was in an actual music store, everyone in the place had gray hair.

Car radios: May still be in the car but who uses it?

All these hard copies: books, magazines, newspapers. My kids don’t even know what a phone book is – or an encyclopedia. They use online dictionaries. They think their mother is a weirdo because she goes to the library. They never remember how to address an envelope since they do it so rarely.

Well, the good thing about all this is, we’re not using so many trees.

Also disappearing: checks and checkbooks and paper bills and statements.

Actual photo albums. Paper holiday cards and paper invitations. Postcards.

Maps, since there’s GPS. But not a separate GPS device. Now, it’s on my phone.

For the same reason: no more cameras or separate music players or game players.

Remember Palm Pilots? Ha!

Everything’s on my phone.

Did I miss anything?

2 comments:

  1. "They think their mother is a weirdo because she goes to the library."
    How long will there be a library to go to? At age 75, even I, with grandson's help, have just transferred a library book to my kindle....its magic!

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  2. I use my car radio every day(portable device's battery always need's charging).I use my palm as a backup for phone number's when my cellphone battery die's.My GPS is not alway's accurrate because of bad satellite data,software or battery problem's,the paper map's I get from AAA are free and the batteries never die!I send and prefer recieving paper greeting card's.OOPS,gotta go the battery on this laptop is dying!So much for modern technology.

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