Baby Boomers Take Note: People hate change, they hate things that go away forever- even if there is something great to take it's place, so what do we have to look forward to losing for ever? Take a look at the 24 THINGS ABOUT TO BECOME EXTINCT IN AMERICA. Feel Old yet?
25. Pit Toilets
By the 2000 Census, the number of Americans who lacked indoor plumbing was down to 0.6%. Even though that's still an awful Lot of Americans using an outhouse or pit toilet -- 670,000 households or 1.3 million people -- it's a huge improvement from 1950 when 27% of households (and over half of rural households) didn't have complete indoor plumbing.
24. Yellow Pages
This year will be pivotal for the global
Yellow Pages industry. Much like newspapers, print Yellow
Pages20will continue to bleed dollars to their various
digital counterparts, from Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs),
to local search engines and combination search/listing
services like Reach Local and Yodle Factors like an
acceleration of the print 'fade rate' and the looming
recession will contribute to the onslaught. One research
firm predicts the falloff in usage of newspapers and print
Yellow Pages could even reach 10% this year -- much higher
than the 2%-3% fade rate seen in past years.
23. Classified Ads
The Internet has made so many things
obsolete that newspaper classified ads might sound like
just another trivial item on a long list. But this is one
of those harbingers of the future that could signal the
end of civilization as we know it. The argument is that if
newspaper classifieds are replaced by free online listings
at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base, then
newspapers are not far behind them.
22. Movie Rental Stores
While Netflix is looking up at the
moment, Blockbuster keeps closing store locations by th e
hundreds. It still has about 6,000 left across the world,
but those keep dwindling and the stock is down
considerably in 2008, especially since the company gave up
a quest of Circuit City. Movie Gallery, which owned the
Hollywood Video brand, closed up shop earlier this year.
Countless small video chains and mom-and-pop stores have
given up the ghost already.
21. Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up connections have fallen from 40%
in 2001 to 10% in 2008. The combination of an
infrastructure to accommodate affordable high speed
Internet connections and the disappearing home phone have
all but pounded the final nail in the coffin of dial-up
Internet access.
20. Phone Landlines
According to a survey from the National
Center for Health Statistics, at the end of 2007, nearly
one in six homes was cell-only and, of those homes that
had landlines, one in eight only received calls on their
cells.
19. Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs
Maryland's icon, the blue crab, has been
fading away in Chesapeake Bay. Last year Maryland saw the
lowest harvest (22 million pounds) since 1945. Just four
decades ago the bay produced 96 million pounds. The
population is down 70% since 1990, when they first did a
formal count. There are only about 120 million crabs in
the bay and they think they need 200 million for a
sustainable population. Over-fishing, pollution, invasive
species and global warming get the blame.
18. VCRs
For the better part of three decades, the
VCR was a best-seller and staple in every American
household until being completely decimated by the DVD, and
now the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). In fact, the only
remnants of the VHS age at your local Wal-Mart or Radio
Shack are blank VHS tapes these days. Pre-recorded VHS
tapes are largely gone and VHS decks are practically
nowhere to be found. They served us so well.
17. Ash Trees
In the late 1990s, a pretty, iridescent
green species of beetle, now known as the emerald ash
borer, hitched a ride to North America with ash wood
products imported from eastern Asia. In less than a
decade, its larvae have killed millions of trees in the
Midwest, and continue to spread. They've killed more than
30 million ash trees in southeastern Michigan alone, with
tens of millions more lost in=2 0Ohio and Indiana. More
than 7.5 billion ash trees are currently at risk.
16. Ham Radio
Amateur radio operators enjoy personal (and
often worldwide) wireless communications with each other
and are able to support their communities with emergency
and disaster communications if necessary, while increasing
their personal knowledge of electronics and radio theory.
However, proliferation of the Internet and its popularity
among youth has caused the decline of amateur radio. In
the past five years alone, the number of people holding
active ham radio licenses has dropped by 50,000, even
though Morse Code is no longer a requirement.
15. The Swimming Hole
Thanks to our litigious society, swimming
holes are becoming a thing of the past. '20 /20' reports
that swimming hole owners, like Robert Every in High
Falls, NY, are shutting them down out of worry that if
someone gets hurt they'll sue. And that's exactly what
happened in Seattle. The city of Bellingham was sued by
Katie Hofstetter who was paralyzed in a fall at a popular
swimming hole in Whatcom Falls Park. As injuries occur and
lawsuits follow, expect more swimming holes to post 'Keep
out!' signs.
14. Answering Machines
The increasing disappearance of answering
machines is directly tied to No 20 our list -- the decline
of landlines. According to USA Today, the number of homes
that only use cell phones jumped 159% between 2004 and
2007. It has been particularly bad in New York; since
2000, landline usage has dropped 55%. It's logical that as
cell phones rise, many of them replacing traditional
landlines, that there will be fewer answering machines.
13. Cameras That Use Film
It doesn't require a statistician to prove
the rapid disappearance of the film camera in America.
Just look to companies like Nikon, the professional's
choice for quality camera equipment. In 2006, it announced
that it would stop making film cameras, pointing to the
shrinking market -- only 3% of its sales in 2005,
compared to 75% of sales from digital cameras and
equipment.
12. Incandescent Bulbs
Before a few years ago, the standard
60-watt (or, yikes, 100-watt) bulb was the mainstay of
every U.S. home. With the green movement and
all-things-sustainable-energy crowd, the Compact
Fluorescent Light bulb (CFL) is largely replacing the
older, Edison-era incandescent bulb. The EPA reports that
2007 sales for Energy Star CFLs nearly doubled from 2006,
and these sales accounted for approximately 20 percent of
the U.S. light bulb market. And according to USA Today, a
new energy bill plans to phase out incandescent bulbs in
the next four t o 12 years.
11. Stand-Alone Bowling Alleys
Bowling Balls
US claims there are still 60
million Americans who bowl at least once a year, but many
are not bowling in stand-alone bowling alleys. Today most
new bowling alleys are part of facilities for all types or
recreation including laser tag, go-karts, bumper cars,
video game arcades, climbing walls and glow miniature
golf. Bowling lanes also have been added to many
non-traditional venues such as adult communities, hotels
and resorts, and gambling casinos.
10. The Milkman
According to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, in 1950, over half of the milk delivered was
to the home in quart bottles, by 1963, it was about a
third and by 2001, it represented only 0.4% percent.
Nowadays most milk is sold through supermarkets in gallon
jugs. The steady decline in home-delivered milk is blamed,
of course, on the rise of the supermarket, better home
refrigeration and longer-lasting milk. Although some
milkmen still make the rounds in pockets of the U.S., they
are certainly a dying breed.
9. Hand-Written Letters
In 2006, the Radicati Group estimated
that, worldwide, 183 billion e-mails were sent each day.
Two million each second. By November of 2007, an estimated
3.3 billion Earthlings owned cell phones, and 80% of the
world's population had access to cell phone co verage. In
2004, half-a-trillion text messages were sent, and the
number has no doubt increased exponentially since then. So
where amongst this gorge of gabble is there room for the
elegant, polite hand-written letter?
8. Wild Horses
It is estimated that 100 years ago, as
many as two million horses were roaming free within the
United States. In 2001, National Geographic News estimated
that the wild horse population had decreased to about
50,000 head. Currently, the National Wild Horse and Burro
Advisory board states that there are 32,000 free roaming
horses in ten Western states, with half of them residing
in Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management is seeking to
reduce the total number of free range horses to 27,000,
possibly by selective euthanasia.
7. Personal Checks
According to an American Bankers Assoc.
report, a net 23% of consumers plan to decrease their use
of checks over the next two years, while a net 14% plan to
increase their use of PIN debit. Bill payment remains the
last stronghold of paper-based payments -- for the time
being. Checks continue to be the most commonly used bill
payment method, with 71% of consumers paying at least one
recurring bill per month by writing a check. However, on a
bill-by-bill basis, checks account for only 49% of
consumers' recurring bill payments ( down from 72% in 2001
and 60% in 2003).
6. Drive-in Theaters
During the peak in 1958, there were more
than 4,000 drive-in theaters in this country, but in 2007
only 405 drive-ins were still operating. Exactly zero new
drive-ins have been built since 2005. Only one reopened in
2005 and five reopened in 2006, so there isn't much of a
movement toward reviving the closed ones.
5. Mumps & Measles
Despite what's been in the news lately,
the measles and mumps actually, truly are disappearing
from the United States. In 1964, 212,000 cases of mumps
were reported in the U .S. By 1983, this figure had
dropped to 3,000, thanks to a vigorous vaccination
program. Prior to the introduction of the measles
vaccine, approximately half a million cases of measles
were reported in the U.S. annually, resulting in 450
deaths. In 2005, only 66 cases were recorded.
4.Honey Bees
Perhaps nothing on our list of
disappearing America is so dire; plummeting so enormously;
and so necessary to the survival of our food supply as the
honey bee. Very scary. 'Colony Collapse Disorder,' or CCD,
has spread throughout the U.S. and Europe over the past
few years, wiping out 50% to 90% of the colonies of many
beekeepers -- and along with it, their livelihood.
3. News Magazines and TV News
While the TV evening newscasts haven't gone
anywhere over the last several decades, their audiences
have. In 1984, in a story about the diminishing returns of
the evening news, the New York Times reported that all
three network evening-news programs combined had only 40.9
million viewers. Fast forward to 2008, and what they have
today is half that.
2. Analog TV
According to the Consumer Electronics
Association, 85% of homes in the U.S. get their television
programming through cable or satellite providers. For the
remaining 15% -- or 13 million individuals -- who are
using rabbit ears or a large outdoor antenna to get their
local stations, change is in the air. If you are one of
these people you'll need to get a new TV or a converter
box in order to get the new stations which will only be
broadcast in digital.
1. The Family Farm
Since the 1930s, the number of family
farms has been declining rapidly. According to the USDA,
5.3 million farms dotted the nation in 1950, but this
number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm census
(data from the 2007 census hasn't yet been published).
Ninety-one percent of the U.S. farms are small family
farms.
Ping Technorati
