10 Things That Will Soon Become Obsolete

Nothing is forever. Don’t believe me? Just think about it. When was the last time you used a manual typewriter? Or a rotary telephone? Or how about a pager? When was the last time you went to a video rental store and rented a VHS tape? The things that are today’s hot technologies are tomorrow’s ancient relics. 

The following are 10 things that we’ve all used for years that will soon no longer be around. This doesn’t necessarily mean they will completely disappear, but you will no longer be able to find them in stores soon, that’s for sure.

1) College Textbooks

College textbooks are thick, heavy, and also not very practical to carry around. Oh, and they will soon be ancient history thanks to the growing popularity of the e-reader. Instead of lugging around a backpack full of books, you can now fit all of your textbooks on one lightweight e-reader. Traditional textbook sellers will simply transition from selling print versions of their books to selling digital licenses. 

2) Dial-Up Internet

Today only about 3% of the entire U.S. population has dial-up internet. And as each year passes, this number keeps getting smaller and smaller. Much of the expansion of broadband has come about as a direct result of broadband initiatives from the federal government. The wireless spectrum is also increasing rapidly. Dial-up internet simply can’t compete. 

3) The Farm Plow

You don’t need to till the soil to grow plants. In fact, these days more and more farmers are choosing “no till” farming techniques to minimize the amount of work they have to do and also so they don’t have to buy and maintain expensive equipment. Instead of tilling the soil, many farmers now use seed drills to insert seeds into the ground.

4) Neighborhood Mailboxes

People just aren’t sending as many letters as they used to thanks to email. From 2004 to 2015, the total volume of first class letters delivered in the U.S. dropped by 57%. To save money, the USPS monitors the amount of traffic that each public mailbox gets and removes those that don’t get very much traffic. As the amount of mail sent each year continues to drop, we can expect to see fewer and fewer neighborhood mailboxes.

5) Privacy

In the digital age we live in, almost nothing is private anymore. Facebook, for example, recently published a list of 98 data points it uses to track people across the web. It uses this data to sell you to advertisers to target. We essentially now live in a day and age where every single mouse click is tracked by some company somewhere. If you are online, always assume you don’t have any privacy and use maximum caution with the websites you visit. 

6) Incandescent Light Bulbs

As of 2014, it is now illegal to manufacture incandescent light bulbs in the U.S. Stores are permitted to sell whatever incandescent bulbs they may still have in stock, but when their supply is gone, that’s it; no more. Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs are now all the rage. They use far less electricity than incandescent bulbs and they last many times longer, too. 

7) Manual Transmissions and Clutch Pedals

Just a few years ago cars with manual transmissions got better gas mileage than those with automatic transmissions. That’s no longer true. Thanks to innovations in transmission technology, the equation has been flipped upside down. Now automatics get better gas mileage. Because of this, car manufacturers aren’t installing manual transmissions as much as they used to. It’s now rare to find a new vehicle with an automatic transmission.

8) Fast Food Workers

The push to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour has already caused some fast food companies to reduce their workforce. Wendy’s, for example, recently announced that they will be replacing 6,000 workers with automated ordering kiosks. Other fast food restaurants will be watching closely and are sure to follow if it proves successful.

9) Newspaper Subscriptions

The way we get our news has changed dramatically in the past two decades. Instead of reading a morning paper to catch up on the things that are happening in the world, most people now get their news from sources on the internet for free. Newspaper subscriptions continue to decline as each year passes. Soon they will be ancient history.

10) Cash transactions

If you pay for something in a store with cash these days, people tend to look at you like you have a third eye or something hanging out of your nose. That’s because most transactions are now made digitally, usually with a credit or debit card. Many people don’t even bother to carry cash with them anymore.