For fun: what current things will be gone/almost gone by 2030?

[mom2scouts]

1 minute ago, Quill said:

This happens, though. Progress doesn’t slow down to accommodate older people or people who won’t OR can’t adapt. Progress doesn’t slow down because it’s expensive. I remember when I was a teen and there was this cool new thing called cable TV. You could pay a fee, which I think was around $35/month then, and then have commercial-free channels you couldn’t get through the antenna. You could have MTV! And CNN! Pay a bit more and you can watch movies on HBO! But we didn’t subscribe to cable TV because my folks would never pay for TV when there was such a thing as free TV. But *now* there is no free TV. 

A lot of people use technology sub-optimally. My dh is this way. He has an iphone but he never backs the darn thing up. He never updates. He hasn’t put any apps on it. If he goes on Facebook, he goes through the browser and then it acts glitchy because you’re supposed to use the app. And so on. He doesn’t use the technology optimally. But that doesn’t stop the technology from progressing. 

I’m just saying ultimately it doesn’t matter that some people can’t or won’t adapt to new technologies. It isn’t going to stop Apple or Netflix or Bank of America from progressing. 

Um, yes, there is *still* free TV. I've never paid for TV in my life. We only watch free network TV, but we've never been big TV watchers anyway.

[Bambam]

We stopped by a real bookstore today. I hope print books are still a thing in the future.

But they had paper maps. ? Surely those will be gone by 2030!

[Bluegoat]

Quote

There would have to be major changes in infrastructure. Changes that will take much longer than 10 years. I live where you have to drive to just about everything. Uber and Lyft are uncommon here. We don't have realistically usable mass transit and my county is 20 miles wide and over 70 miles long. And my city isn't an anomaly. Many Florida cities are more like suburbs without the closeness of stores, doctors, etc. and without good alternative transportation options.

 

My guess is it will be the other way round. Lack of cars will push changes in communities. Not necessarily from a top down direction either.  

[Bluegoat]

Print books have undergone something of a resurgence I believe.  

I don't think I necessarily agree that "progress" always marches on.  It's more that in hindsight, things that don't catch on don't get counted as progress. But you don't always know which are which ahead of time.  

Another thing I've thought of is film and television - I think that there will be a lot fewer choices.  All the streaming services around now will max out and some will fall by the wayside, or they will be gathered up by larger companies.  In fact I think our media choices will become more centralised, internet will be more centralised, print will be more centralised.  And I also think there will be less expensive to produce content - right now there is an incredible amount being made and it's not going to be sustainable in the market.

[Janeway]

On 12/22/2019 at 7:15 AM, Quill said:

I notice this so much with my ds20’s generation. We were just discussing this because his Christmas wish list is full of smart home tech products. My dh was saying, “But doesn’t it bother you that Amazon is always listening to you?” He shrugged and said, “No. I’m sure Amazon already has a detailed profile about me; what difference does it make if it also knows what toilet paper I buy?” 

Even though I am from an older generation, I have already started thinking similar to this for the past several years. Living with, let’s call it, “extreme convenience” means giving up lots of things that I used to think were private. 

I just recently experienced another one of those strange “coincidences” where t seems like FB is listening to me or stalking me on the web. I logged into my public library account and searched for books by David Sedaris. I borrowed a couple, too. Then, I went on FB and, lo and behold, what do you think I got as an ad? David Sedaris’ master writing class! Coincidence? Maybe, but doubtful. 

Someone was sitting next to me in a public place talking about their upcoming vacation to a place I have no interest in and have never googled or anything.  Shortly after, I looked at Facebook and there were ads for that vacation. 

[Janeway]

1 hour ago, mom2scouts said:

Um, yes, there is *still* free TV. I've never paid for TV in my life. We only watch free network TV, but we've never been big TV watchers anyway.

I heard about the free TV but I don’t know how to get the channels on my TV. Can you please tell me?

[Junie]

10 hours ago, Lady Florida. said:

OMG we're trying to clear out stuff from our house before putting it on the market. I keep putting DVDs in the give away box but dh and ds keep pulling them out. They're so #$%&$# dusty and no one has watched any of them in at least five years but they won't let go. I told them both if we hang on to them long enough they'll be as useful as VCR tapes. 

We still have a VCR and several boxes of tapes...

(We also have an original Nintendo.)

[Pawz4me]

8 hours ago, mom2scouts said:

Um, yes, there is *still* free TV. I've never paid for TV in my life. We only watch free network TV, but we've never been big TV watchers anyway.

Agreed. We have an over-the-air digital antenna on our RV, and the number and variety of channels we can pick up anywhere near most populated areas is amazing. It's not uncommon for us to get dozens of channels. Some of them will be repeats, but even with the repeats we still get SO many more than the three networks plus PBS that we could get at our house when I was growing up pre-cable. (But I do feel it necessary to say that because we aren't the types to let most technology pass us by, we also bring along one of our Rokus and sometimes stream through our YouTubeTV account using the hot spot from one of our phones. 🙂)

 

6 hours ago, Janeway said:

I heard about the free TV but I don’t know how to get the channels on my TV. Can you please tell me?

You can buy an OTA digital antenna at just about any store that has an electronics department. Our Walmart has several to choose from. Some of them hook to your TV and hang from a wall or sit on a shelf. Others are meant to be installed outside, and those will of course generally pick up more channels. My brother installed an outside one for his wife's sister and she pulls in over 50 channels.

[Guest]

16 hours ago, Lady Florida. said:

OMG we're trying to clear out stuff from our house before putting it on the market. I keep putting DVDs in the give away box but dh and ds keep pulling them out. They're so #$%&$# dusty and no one has watched any of them in at least five years but they won't let go. I told them both if we hang on to them long enough they'll be as useful as VCR tapes. 

Tangent: dh and I just had a blown-out-of-proportion argument about this. About a year or two ago, I had the kids go through all the DVDs and get rid of all those that weren’t important to them. (For myself the only movies that must stay no matter what are Harry Potter. Most movies I watch only once but HP is the exception.) Well, among the movies I’m pretty sure went was The Passion of the Christ. Dh gave it to me the Christmas when it was a new movie. I hated it! I don’t like gruesome scenes of violence in any movie and that bothered me more than average because - it’s Jesus. I hid my eyes through the whole crucifixion. Anyway...I hated that movie, will never watch it again and, since it was given to me, it’s mine to do what I want with. 

Dh just mentioned wanting to watch it together as a family for Christmas (Hey kids! Let’s all gather around the telly and watch Our Lord being brutally murdered! Family fun for all! 🙄🤔) and I said I hated that movie, would not watch it if I could, but also pretty sure we got rid of that in the last culling. He was so butt-hurt! He was irrationally upset that I pitched it. (He’s he more hoarder-ish of us.) 

Dh made a remark in front of the kids saying, “Well one thing someone could get me for Christmas is a DVD of Passion of the Christ!” Ds20 said facetiously, “What’s a DVD?”

[Guest]

9 hours ago, mom2scouts said:

Um, yes, there is *still* free TV. I've never paid for TV in my life. We only watch free network TV, but we've never been big TV watchers anyway.

Ok. I stand corrected. I thought I remembered hearing all open-broadcast TV would end by (don’t remember the year; say, 2010). You are in the tiny minority though, which is fine; I’m not saying you should be bothered by that. Just that my experience has been that TV by antenna is not a realistic option for most. 

We have a TV at our beach house with no TV service but nobody ever even attempts to use it for network broadcasts, though it seems to me there are no channels clear enough to view. But all families using the house have ipads or computers and Netflix or Prime and so, would watch that instead. (There’s not a lot of TV-watching there anyway because it’s a vacation house.) 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Bluegoat said:

Print books have undergone something of a resurgence I believe.  

I don't think I necessarily agree that "progress" always marches on.  It's more that in hindsight, things that don't catch on don't get counted as progress. But you don't always know which are which ahead of time.  

Another thing I've thought of is film and television - I think that there will be a lot fewer choices.  All the streaming services around now will max out and some will fall by the wayside, or they will be gathered up by larger companies.  In fact I think our media choices will become more centralised, internet will be more centralised, print will be more centralised.  And I also think there will be less expensive to produce content - right now there is an incredible amount being made and it's not going to be sustainable in the market.

That’s a fair point. I do remember when there was Beta and VHS for home movie viewing; at one point in the 80s, it wasn’t apparent that VHS would become the viable option, while Beta would die out. Remember when Blu-Ray DVDs first were released? I was so annoyed and remember saying, “Great, now all the players will go to Blu-Ray and we won’t be able to watch our standard DVDs at all!” But it never got to that because of streaming. 

But I think we can safely say certain things, like using checks, are surely going away and eventually will simply be a relic like our floppy-disks and 8-track tapes. And it doesn’t matter that some slow adopters (or never adopters) resist and won’t switch over. You (not *you* personally) can dig in and refuse to change, you can abandon your bank because they no longer send paper statements to any customer, you can refuse to sign up for automatic bill pay with your power company, but eventually, you’re just going to be standing there holding a checkbook without the ability to pay your bill. So in that sense, progress does march on. It doesn’t care that some people can’t or won’t change. It’s just going to move on without you. 

 

[Serenade]

20 hours ago, Quill said:

All this talk of landlines makes me think of another thing that I expect will be totally gone by 2030 (and is already rare): fax. I keep thinking (but forgetting) I need to go into our invoice forms on Quickbooks and remove the fax number from the company forms. No landline = no fax, so the number on our forms has been out of use since this past spring or summer. 

 

 

I am so old that I was the first person at the advertising company I worked for who sent a fax.  I made the company newsletter! 😀  I got this distinct privilege because I was the national accounts manager, and before the fax, the only way we could get last minute graphics for ad content was via fed-ex overnight, and that was always a bit risky. 

[Pawz4me]

I don't think faxes will completely go away. Quite a lot of doctors and hospitals still rely on faxing as a more-secure-than-email form of communication. I'm guessing the same is true of banks/investment companies, attorneys and other fields where security is highly valued. But I also wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong about that.

[Carrie12345]

17 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

I don't think faxes will completely go away. Quite a lot of doctors and hospitals still rely on faxing as a more-secure-than-email form of communication. I'm guessing the same is true of banks/investment companies, attorneys and other fields where security is highly valued. But I also wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong about that.

I’m not the techiest of people, but I can’t imagine how digital information to specific log ins might be less secure than a piece of paper that can float around.

Dh sometimes “faxes”, but through an app, lol.

[math teacher]

56 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

I don't think faxes will completely go away. Quite a lot of doctors and hospitals still rely on faxing as a more-secure-than-email form of communication. I'm guessing the same is true of banks/investment companies, attorneys and other fields where security is highly valued. But I also wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong about that.

I just listened to a podcast about fax machines the other day. I think they will hang around.

[mom2scouts]

Somebody asked dh if he could fax something recently and we looked at each other and said, "Do people still use fax machines?"

Funny story about free network TV: A few months ago, my son gave me a tiny flat screen TV that he wasn't using. Our main TV is older than dirt and one of those ones that are really deep an need a big cabinet. We've had to use converter boxes for years. Anyway, the flat screen suddenly stopped getting any channels and the old TV worked just fine. The local news stations had been warning people that they were changing things (going all digital or something?) and everyone would need to re-scan for local channels. I re-scanned and it still didn't work. I spent hours changing all the settings, checking the connection to the antenna, and wondering if the TV was broken. Finally, I looked at it and it and thought, "It's a digital TV and all the stations are completely digital now. WHY do I still have it hooked up to a converter box?" I removed the converter box, hooked everything up again, and got 30+ crystal clear channels. LOL! I felt like an idiot, but I felt a bit better that I did finally figure it out.

[Pawz4me]

1 hour ago, Carrie12345 said:

I’m not the techiest of people, but I can’t imagine how digital information to specific log ins might be less secure than a piece of paper that can float around.

Dh sometimes “faxes”, but through an app, lol.

I don't understand it either. But DH has been dealing with cancer for over a couple of years, and so as you can imagine we've had a huge amount of interaction with various medical providers, and experiences with them communicating with each other. And they all seem to use faxing for a lot of that communication.

[happi duck]

On 12/22/2019 at 8:28 AM, history-fan said:

Snail mail- maybe even the whole postal service. 

This would be a terrible loss.  Btw, I think this should be called "real mail". 

[Annie G]

11 minutes ago, happi duck said:

This would be a terrible loss.  Btw, I think this should be called "real mail". 

I’m with you. I still send lots of cards and letters throughout the year.  I’ll be sad if I have to give that up. 

[Liz CA]

• Malls
• Privacy
• Paper money & coins
• Gas powered vehicles (I can get behind this since gasoline is costing me a bundle)

[Tanaqui]

The USPS would be doing just fine if it wasn't for a diehard cabal of conservative congresscritters devoted to taking it down. No, I'm not making that up... but I also feel I've gone a bit too close to politics so I'm not going to elaborate either. Google it.

[Joker]

I've seen malls listed a few times but all of our local ones are booming. The closest to us is even getting a Dave & Busters in a few months. So, at least some of them are still doing quite well.

[Ausmumof3]

On 12/23/2019 at 1:05 AM, Serenade said:

 

This would bother me a lot, that your library is sharing data with FB.  I guess it's just another way for them to make money.

More likely Facebook is key logging or something

ive had similar with posts on this forum and I’m pretty sure SWB isn’t trawling the forum for data to send to Facebook.

[Lady Florida.]

20 hours ago, Junie said:

We still have a VCR and several boxes of tapes...

(We also have an original Nintendo.)

If you watch them that's fine. Notice I said they were dusty. 🙂 It's frustrating that they haven't watched any of the DVDs in years yet they won't let them go. 

[Lady Florida.]

4 hours ago, Arctic Mama said:

I’ve been using tankless hot water heaters (Rinnai) for a decade - we love them!

Oh, that's the brand our new house will have!

[Bluegoat]

15 hours ago, Quill said:

That’s a fair point. I do remember when there was Beta and VHS for home movie viewing; at one point in the 80s, it wasn’t apparent that VHS would become the viable option, while Beta would die out. Remember when Blu-Ray DVDs first were released? I was so annoyed and remember saying, “Great, now all the players will go to Blu-Ray and we won’t be able to watch our standard DVDs at all!” But it never got to that because of streaming. 

But I think we can safely say certain things, like using checks, are surely going away and eventually will simply be a relic like our floppy-disks and 8-track tapes. And it doesn’t matter that some slow adopters (or never adopters) resist and won’t switch over. You (not *you* personally) can dig in and refuse to change, you can abandon your bank because they no longer send paper statements to any customer, you can refuse to sign up for automatic bill pay with your power company, but eventually, you’re just going to be standing there holding a checkbook without the ability to pay your bill. So in that sense, progress does march on. It doesn’t care that some people can’t or won’t change. It’s just going to move on without you. 

 

 

Sure, at a certain point it becomes clear that some things will likely stop being used, barring really unforeseen turns of events.  

Sometimes it is worth pushing back though. Moves toward a cashless society might be an example, there are governments that seem to be advocating this but there are downsides for citizens - if it is pushed it might seem easy and inevitable, and that can have a soporific effect.  

 

[Junie]

47 minutes ago, Lady Florida. said:

If you watch them that's fine. Notice I said they were dusty. 🙂 It's frustrating that they haven't watched any of the DVDs in years yet they won't let them go. 

Oh, I totally agree with you.  I wanted to get rid of them a few years ago when our VCR died.  And then dfil gave us his VCR...

This one is almost dead, so maybe... just maybe...  we'll be able to get rid of it before 2030. :)

[Ausmumof3]

hopefully not physical books and kids being raised at home at least some of the time

maybe

diesel cars?  Not trucks and four wheel drives

cars will be mostly self driving 

 

[Tanaqui]

I don't see, Ausmumof3, how you can possibly postulate that in one decade, the majority of parents in your country - or any country! - will not even have their kids at home "at least some of the time".

[Ausmumof3]

4 hours ago, Tanaqui said:

I don't see, Ausmumof3, how you can possibly postulate that in one decade, the majority of parents in your country - or any country! - will not even have their kids at home "at least some of the time".

Some of the waking hours is what I meant really.

[G5052]

7 hours ago, Margaret in CO said:

We've had problems in Scouts with this. I simply don't have time to call the ONE family who will not use email or FB for notifications. They were angry all the time for being left out. Well, you only have a landline, and no answering machine, no email, no FB, no messaging, so just how are we to let you know that things changed??? It was one reason that they dropped out of the troop, well, other than just refusing to follow National rules. We have a family now who miss things because they won't let their kid have a cell, nor do they use FB. Their kid is only allowed to check email every few days. This really doesn't work!

 

I have a very dear friend in her 70's who doesn't own a cell phone. They have a home business and use their home phone and an email address for that. When I email her, it goes to her business address because they only have one email address. I don't email anything I'm not OK with her husband seeing because he sometimes looks at the email before she does.

And you know, I'm fine with that. She's made a choice that works for her. But that's an adult, and at least they check their email (LOL). 

[Liz CA]

10 minutes ago, Margaret in CO said:

Yep--at least they check their email! When I get chewed out because "We don't know what's going on!" I point out that all THREE of them got the emails!

 

I don't get this either. Emailed ds a gift card for Christmas since he is not here. I had to text him to remind him to check his email. When he did, he texted back, "Wow over 14,000 unread emails."  Unbelievable. I still find email a great tool for longer messages that would be awkward to text over phone.

[RootAnn]

On 12/24/2019 at 6:41 AM, Quill said:

... but eventually, you’re just going to be standing there holding a checkbook without the ability to pay your bill. 

Or, I might be the only one who can pay the bill because I still have a checkbook. ;)

I think most of what has been named in this fun thread will still be around in 10 years, but maybe not 20. Some things you guys mention might be common place in certain areas of the country on 10 years but in the center of the U.S., in rural areas especially, things take a loooong time to change. In Wyoming, North Dakota, Iowa, central Missouri, western Nebraska, and other places, it'll take a lot longer than 10 years to phase out much of these things.

I use a lot of checks-grocery store, Chinese take-out (they only take cash & checks), tithing at my church, donations to organizations, and more. I do have some bills on autopay, but I find it hard to keep track of all of these. That's actually why I don't use a debit card because keeping a handle on my balance would be impossible. In ten years, I'm afraid my hometown bank will get rid of the phone number I use to hear what checks have cleared & how much direct deposits for DH's paycheck were. That'll be annoying.

There is no Lyft or Uber here. Venmo is not a thing. (Paypal, yes.) 

Self-driving cars will need more accurate maps of roads because some still think there is a road connection between our dead end road and the highway. I think they'll do just fine on main roads, but small towns... Not as much.

I don't like change, so we still have VHS tapes, a VCR, along with DVDs. (The local library completed the switch- over from VHS tapes this year.) Our TV is pre-2000 vintage (analog).

For those who have targeted ads--your apps have access to your microphone. Also, FB is known to set targeting cookies to other websites you visit before & after you login to FB. They also have other apps send them info about your activities. I'm not sure about geographic location info, but that is also likely being shared widely from your apps.

14 hours ago, Arctic Mama said:

 I will caveat that he is the textbook definition of Overdoing It Engineer in the dictionary, though, 😉

Anything designed at home by a good (older) engineer is likely over-engineered & thus robust. There's a lot of that here.

[Lady Florida.]

24 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

 

I think most of what has been named in this fun thread will still be around in 10 years, but maybe not 20. Some things you guys mention might be common place in certain areas of the country on 10 years but in the center of the U.S., in rural areas especially, things take a loooong time to change. In Wyoming, North Dakota, Iowa, central Missouri, western Nebraska, and other places, it'll take a lot longer than 10 years to phase out much of these things.

 I do have some bills on autopay, but I find it hard to keep track of all of these. That's actually why I don't use a debit card because keeping a handle on my balance would be impossible. 

There is no Lyft or Uber here. Venmo is not a thing. (Paypal, yes.) 

(The local library completed the switch- over from VHS tapes this year.)

Even though I live where they launch rockets (and soon people again) into space, change takes a long time to get here too. AFAIK no local credit unions have Google, Samsung, or Apple pay. I'd use it if ours did. I imagine the big banks have it but we like our credit union. Speaking of banking, we use auto pay but do it through our bank rather than the individual places. We do all of our online bill paying through our bank rather than the website of the company we're paying. 

There's no Lyft here but there's Uber - just 2 cars. Door Dash just recently became available but only a few places use it. We do have grocery delivery, pay online to pickup, and curbside pickup. Those are only available however for Target, Walmart, and the regional grocery chain Publix.

I want to give those DVDs I mentioned upthread to our local library branch. When I called I asked if they'd keep them or if they give them to the Friends of the Library for their quarterly sale. The person I spoke to said they'll go through them first. If they want it but don't have it or if their copy is getting scratched and worn, they'll keep it. The rest they give to FoL. Either way the library benefits. We used this branch extensively throughout or homeschool years so I'm glad to be able to give back in more ways than just paying taxes. 

Edited December 25, 2019 by Lady Florida.

[Guest]

Kind of a spin-off of self driving cars-driving as a rite of passage. The only 15 yr olds I know who are getting their learner's permit a and learning to drive are the ones who's parents are insisting on it, and few kids drive all that much due to insurance costs, etc-the ones that do usually are doing so because their parent needed them to take over some of the load. DD's feeling is that she can always walk, scooter, or call an Uber, so why drive?  

[RootAnn]

Thanks for reminding me @Lady Florida.

No Door Dash or Grub Hub here. Big city 1 1/2 hrs away, yes. No Sunday Amazon delivery. No same day delivery. No curbside pickup or grocery delivery. We can call & get someone to drop off a prescription but that's likely because of the aging population in our small town. Like a lot of rural areas, most of our young people move away unless they want to teach, do nursing, or work at one of the 2-3 places that employ over half the adults in our area. Retail & fast food doesn't employ as many here as it used to because many places are shutting down. (Self-check & self-order is a thing in the bigger town 30 min away.)

I do not see USPS being gone in 10 years but I do think it will look much different than it does today. I also think UPS &FedEx will run differently if they are flexible enough to pair with 3D printing companies. Their regional hubs can have 3D print tech & places like Amazon can send the print plans to a hub where a toy or vehicle part will print. Then, the delivery company takes it the rest of the way to your door. Less work than having parts sitting in inventory & having to ship cross-country.

I do wonder if there will be any printed newspapers/magazines left in 20 years.

[mom2scouts]

3 hours ago, dmmetler said:

Kind of a spin-off of self driving cars-driving as a rite of passage. The only 15 yr olds I know who are getting their learner's permit a and learning to drive are the ones who's parents are insisting on it, and few kids drive all that much due to insurance costs, etc-the ones that do usually are doing so because their parent needed them to take over some of the load. DD's feeling is that she can always walk, scooter, or call an Uber, so why drive?  

That must be related to your location. Most of the teens I know get their driver's license as soon as possible and families that can afford it provide their teens with cars. High school student parking lots are huge. It is not possible to walk, scooter, or bike most places here. Even places that are close enough have traffic patterns that making walking or biking too dangerous. Uber is not allowed to take minors and I don't know of anyone who allows their teens to use it.

[Bambam]

6 hours ago, dmmetler said:

Kind of a spin-off of self driving cars-driving as a rite of passage. The only 15 yr olds I know who are getting their learner's permit a and learning to drive are the ones who's parents are insisting on it, and few kids drive all that much due to insurance costs, etc-the ones that do usually are doing so because their parent needed them to take over some of the load. DD's feeling is that she can always walk, scooter, or call an Uber, so why drive?  

You must not be in Texas. No way people here - except those in the metroplexes - don't need to drive. Everyone. I personally can't imagine giving up my freedom to drive wherever I want whenever. The entire family has several more days off - why not take an impromptu vacation to Fill-in-the-blank location? Why not head to a local state park and hike? No telling when we might be done, and I'd hate to wait for an Uber - assuming one ever showed up. We live in a small town. Even the kids in the local college town don't Uber to classes if they don't live on campus - not enough Ubers, no bus service for much of the town. Scooter might work, but not with the drivers we have here - LOTs of very large pickups and fairly aggressive drivers. No way I'd feel comfortable on a scooter! 

[Sk8ermaiden]

Yeah, I live in Texas and if you relied on Uber to get to places you couldn't walk or scooter, you'd be housebound or bankrupt in a year. SO expensive. 

[J-rap]

I'm jumping in late here and mostly skimmed through this thread, but I think Facebook will be gone or at least on its way out by 2030.

[Pawz4me]

4 hours ago, J-rap said:

I'm jumping in late here and mostly skimmed through this thread, but I think Facebook will be gone or at least on its way out by 2030.

I hope you're right about that! The world would be a better place, assuming something worse didn't replace it (yeah, I know--huge assumption).

[Teaching3bears]

Why do you think Facebook will be gone? Is it because younger people are not using it?

[Lady Florida.]

12 hours ago, Bambam said:

You must not be in Texas. No way people here - except those in the metroplexes - don't need to drive. 

Same here in Florida. With the exception of a few larger cities/metro areas most of the state doesn't have anything within walking/biking/scooter distance. Also, if you took a bike to work you'd arrive dripping with sweat and needing a shower, about 6 months out of the year. And on the way home you'd be likely to get caught in a monster thunderstorm with lightning, and rain so heavy you can barely see your hand in front of you. 

Edited December 26, 2019 by Lady Florida.

[YaelAldrich]

Does anyone thing small town/very rural living will be gone soon?  Someone upthread said that the young people are not moving back after college.  I know I left my small town, never to come back.  Will suburbs/city living be the norm ever?

 

[J-rap]

5 hours ago, Teaching3bears said:

Why do you think Facebook will be gone? Is it because younger people are not using it?

That's certainly part of it.  My kids are all 23 - 31, and none of them (or their peers) use it anymore.  It's just starting to feel outdated to me.  I guess I can't give you a list of reasons... just a feeling.  

ETA:  "outdated and tiresome."  🙂  Even my middle aged friends mostly don't use it anymore...  Just a few die-hards.

 

Edited December 26, 2019 by J-rap

[HS Mom in NC]

As for shopping malls, maybe more places will fill them with resale shops they have in Sweden:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/recycled-mall-sweden-retuna_n_5bfd0762e4b0eb6d931346b3

[HS Mom in NC]

3 hours ago, YaelAldrich said:

Does anyone thing small town/very rural living will be gone soon? 

 

 

1 hour ago, kdsuomi said:

City living in cities out here it's far too expensive to even think it would be possible for most young people just setting out. 

It's time federal and state governments seriously consider choosing between propping up dying economies and dwindling services (hospitals, schools, etc.) in rural and desperately poor urban areas with taxes or using those taxes to slowly and steadily relocate people to places with healthy economies and adequate services. The reality is, we cannot expect the taxpayers to continue to sink limited funds into those money pits.  So far I haven't heard any other plausible options.  Same with people living in flood plains. Flood insurance funds should only be collected to move and buy a home not in a flood plain. Stop granting building permits on flood plains, not one should be subsidizing that kind of senselessness. 

We're also going to have give rights to low income housing builders.  Allowing wealthy and moderate income Americans to deny low income Americans a place to live by protesting city governments granting permits for low income housing has to become a civil rights issue. We'll need to make tiny house options available  because that's what's going to work for many people starting out and many retirees. Something the size of a free standing studio apartment will need some minimal building code regulation and be granted building permits. This is an economic reality now, and it will likely become more normative as automation affects jobs.

[TravelingChris]

On 12/23/2019 at 12:40 PM, Quill said:

All this talk of landlines makes me think of another thing that I expect will be totally gone by 2030 (and is already rare): fax. I keep thinking (but forgetting) I need to go into our invoice forms on Quickbooks and remove the fax number from the company forms. No landline = no fax, so the number on our forms has been out of use since this past spring or summer. 

Another thing I think will be gone or extremely reduced by 2030: DVDs I also think the way people buy clothes will continue to change away from buying clothes off the rack at a store and will include much more either custom-made clothing where you pick the choices on-line (eShakti already operates like this) or more style shopping services like Stitch Fix. I also think clothing rental is going to grow in popularity. Eventually (not in ten years but probably in twenty) I think closets in homes will change to be more like the European way with cabinetry in the room and will move away from big walk-in closets. I personally do think the European cabinet wall style makes loads more sense and I wish ours was designed like that. 

I had thought fax was mostly not used anymore until I discovered that all health facilities, doctors, pharmacies, etc, use fax so often.  I have to use an online fax service frequently.

As to DVDS, we do buy lots of DVDs, including teaching company or FGreat Courses or whatever they are called nowadays.

[TravelingChris]

12 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

I hope you're right about that! The world would be a better place, assuming something worse didn't replace it (yeah, I know--huge assumption).

Not for me.  Most of my disease related social support is through Facebook.  There are a lot of specialized groups on Facebook and while I mostly deal with groups based on most of my diseases, my kids all belong to funny meme groups or joker groups or bird lovers or what not.  

[HS Mom in NC]

3 hours ago, kdsuomi said:

 

The government is not propping up where I live, though, and we don't have services here and must go to the city in order to access anything. Albeit, that city is only roughly 20 minutes away. There is also no such thing as minimal building codes here in CA. The cities are built out, can only build up, and with CA codes that's extremely expensive. My city is also very far from poor, also.  Generalizing one solution onto the entire nation isn't beneficial. 

You saw the part of my post that said it was a solution for dying economies in poor areas, right?