When my baby grows up, I wonder if/what/how…..

Ever wonder what your baby will be like in the future? I know most parents try to imagine their baby’s personalities, their future friends, and their future careers. I bet you also might imagine how life might be for them….

Well, Yahoo recently came out with an article called “Things Babies born in 2011 will Never Know”. I never thought about some of the things they mentioned until now:

Video tape: Starting this year, the news stories we produce here at Money Talks have all been shot, edited, and distributed to TV stations without ever being on any kind of tape. Not only that, the tape-less broadcast camera we use today offers much higher quality than anything that could have been imagined 10 years ago — and cost less than the lens on the camera we were using previously.

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?

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.

Books, magazines, and newspapers: Like video tape, words written on dead trees are on their way out. Sure, there may be books — 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.

©Will D/flickr

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.

Wired 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 cameras: For the purist, perhaps, but for kids born today, the word “film” will mean nothing. In fact, even digital cameras — both video and still — are in danger of extinction as our pocket computers take over that function too.

Yellow and White Pages: Why in the world would you need a 10-pound book just to find someone?

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?

Commercial music radio: Smartphones with music-streaming programs like Pandora are a better solution that doesn’t include ads screaming between every song.

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.

There are some things I don’t agree with. Watches are one of them. In fact, I see the potential in watches. I see it taking over cell phones one day. You may not see it now, as many people several years ago couldn’t picture a TV having a remote turn on the TV from far away, but watches, with enough technology and upgrades have the ability to have internet, and talk to people on it instead of on the cell phone. They might even get a screen on the watch. And if you want just a private conversation, blue-tooth from the watch, and have everyone look like they’re talking to themselves, so you won’t be able to tell who is schizophrenic or not. Watches will also be more useful as both a phone and watch because it’s hard to lose or drop a watch. So many people complain about losing their cell phones, or dropping it from their pocket (unless you have a cell phone case that sits on your belt). But even when you have to answer the phone or text, you have to take it out and press the buttons. Not with a wrist-watch like phone. Just press the button when it’s on your wrist and talk. Or maybe it opens to reveal a dial-up pad, and if you want to text, you can text through that. And it’s harder to get your watch stolen than it is for your cell phone. They have to literally sever your wrist…unless your watch breaks and falls off, which makes it useless anyway. Watches have a lot of potential thinking about it that way.

The second one I disagree with is Commercials. Well, even if there are no commercials, there will be ads. And each ad will be wackier than ever to get people to buy a product. How else are they going to? People will find a way to put an ad anywhere so they can make some money and get more promotion. Who knows, maybe in the future commercials won’t be as expensive. Possibly, it will be much easier to make, as I see people on Youtube advertising their merchandise all the time ASIDE from the ads.

Also, retirement plans. Yes, we are in a recession now, but who knows in the future. Also, people are going to stand for their rights. Something needs to take care of them when they get older. And they are going to fight for that. If not the same type of retirement plans, some form of compensation.

Everything else is nearly obsolete now. I can imagine it being a completely foreign thing to the children of tomorrow. Internet is the billion dollar industry. More and more people are being laid off of regular jobs, but more and more people are getting jobs as customer service reps online. They can sit online and work from home over the computer and get a check sent to them. I’m not sure if Faxing will go, as there needs to be private mail. but who knows, maybe nothing will be private anymore, or they’ll come up with some new private express. I can honestly say I’ve only FAXed one thing. Everything else: Email. No one picture to a frame anymore. Snapfish has slideshows. And new picture frames might allow people to show more than one picture. Though picture frames are more decorative items than of any use, I very seldom see people putting up pictures anymore.

This will be one sad and boring world, full of technology that further prevents people from intermingling with one another and socializing. Will people even go outside anymore? Maybe it’s more dangerous now that it used to be so people need indoor activities now more than outdoor, but maybe technology is the reason why it is. There is more to have and people want more of it, so they rob, steal, and kill to have it and live an easier life. How lazy and sad, and yet I am contributing to this massacre of the old way and contribution to the new. I have become accustomed to my own computer. Still, don’t care about my cell phone, but without my computer, everything seems dull. Imagine the world if all of the power went out and we were forced to go back to lighting candles and reading books and playing made up games and using something kids have no clue how to use: their imaginations, in order to pass the time away. We would be messed up.

I’m also going to add some other things that will be gone:

1) Dolls- With the video game and swinky and online dolls, there is no need for physical and solid doll making. Neither is there any need to use your imagination. Internet has done it all (Those in charge of internet and computer are rich people and will soon be richer). Who needs to buy and play with a toy that will be broken and end up in the closet anyway? Online dolls never break, and you can dress them, make them talk with friends, and go to online shopping malls, pretend to be a singer, all on this giant vast world of technology called the computer. Even adults can still stay children and create their own characters and do what they’ve always wanted to do with their dolls….without looking retarded. They can create their own Avatar and go on a virtual quests full of games. Whats the point of a doll? Even American Girl (known for it’s lines of historical dolls) have connected their modern dolls with an online virtual world. And though you have to buy the doll in order to access this world, there is no point in playing with the doll once you do buy it. What a scheme to waste your money on, right?

2) TV or Networking-Though this seems almost impossible because TV is getting bigger and bigger, internet is also somewhat replacing that. You want to know how many people watch things online now? There are even Youtube celebrities. Even though some people still watch TV, more and more people are catching their favorite shows even online. They are even paying for the shows online. And online you can stop and press play anytime you want. You don’t have to tape anything. It is already available and streamed online. Eventually, television and networks will travel straight onto the internet, so you can watch all your favorite channels on the go without having to install a TV in your car.

3) DVDs- Again, people can watch their favorite movies online. More and more people are doing that too. What’s the point of buying on DVD when you can watch it online? Heck, you can even buy movies OnDemand now. And instead of wasting space with all those unnecessary DVDs, keep it on the TV or online. It’s much cheaper.

4) Paints and art tools-Maybe for art class. But aren’t they teaching digital art now too? Last art class I went to, they taught us how to make a layout for digital art…..Paintings will be completely a thing of the past. Sketch artists will go out of business. The rise of 3-D cartoons show that. Most kids are initially turned off from 2-D (unless you’re Disney, who can make money just with it’s label). I give it a couple of years and Japanese anime will be in 3-D like Code Lyoko or Gregory Horror Show. Not pretty yet, but when they find a way to improve it, it will be.

5) Cartoons- Yea, I initially thought of this as a joke. But when I turn to the kids’ channels, all I see is sitcoms and other “live action” shows. Even Cartoon Network is getting into the spirit. Choke-me.

6) Notebooks and Pens-whats the point? No writing. Either you record all of your lectures or type everything down. Eventually, that will be more necessary.

So, with all of these inventions going out of business, there is one person who is a genius: Thomas Edison. He invented the electric light bulb, and yet and still, no one has yet to find a replacement since the 1800s. It is still the most widely used invention (unless another alternative is eventually used). He also invented the movie theater. Unless people can get a bigger screen to fit into their house and surround themselves on all four walls with screens, there is no screen bigger than the movie theater screen. That in itself is why people go. It’s a giant screen that makes the movie seem more real. All they have to do is improve their 3-D movies and have more interactive features in the theater, like they do in the Shrek 3-D ride at Universal Studios. In that ride, you “felt” everything that was happening in the movie. When the spiders fell, it felt like they were really crawling up you in the theater. When Shrek spit, you felt it. It was so 3-D, you literally could feel it because of the special effects installed in the theater. When movie theaters get that advanced, then we’re all good.

But overall, this is a scary thought, to think that the next generation will never know these things….and that one day, all of it will be another artifact of the past. Well, prepare yourselves. I think if you want your kids to remember this stuff, it’s up to you, as parents, to teach them.

The children of 2011 will be generation “Capricorn” I call them, all work and no play and according to statistics. They will capitalize, and invest time and energy into resources and working. They will change the government, break rules and add new ones. They will be leaders and start new things in the capital industry that we haven’t heard of (or that we have heard of but still haven’t figured out how to do). Law and Order is there motto. They will be workaholics and perfectionists. Music will be at it’s best. They will revive traditional things, but add new spark to old trends. Sarcasm is their thing. Time travel will be a focus, and so will occult and spiritual leanings. They will purify things.

Seems like it, looking at all the things they won’t know.

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