Social Question

john65pennington's avatar

What items or occupations will be terminated in the very short future?

Asked by john65pennington (29273points) January 12th, 2011

We all know that phonebooks are just about obsolete. Cellphones and free 411 are here to stay. I believe that travel agents are just about obsolete. Booking your flight and hotel on your computer, is also here to stay. This eliminates the need for a travel agent. Question: what other items or occupations can you name that will be deleted within the next two or three years because of the age of information and communication?

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5 Answers

Arbornaut's avatar

Printers. Iv worked with several who have been in the industry since leaving school and have been made redundant, now laborers and unable to find any work printing.
They say its the whole online revolution. For example, companies that once had their quarterly earnings statements professionally printed for investors are now doing everything electronically.

Arbornaut's avatar

Printing isn’t going to be made obsolete, but there is a huge down sizing of the industry taking place.

LuckyGuy's avatar

TV Repair is already gone. For a while there was a niche for HD TV setup experts. Now the TVs do it themselves.

Cell phone sales. The profit margins are going down. The phones are cheaper and the plans are less expensive. In two more years that will all be done online.

downtide's avatar

There is still a majority population who do not have computer/internet acess, even in countries like the US and UK, so I think some of these services like travel agents and newspapers will continue for a while yet, although on a much smaller scale.

DVD rental shops have just about disappeared from the UK, I haven’t seen one in years. They can’t compete with the discount prices in the shops.

Newspapers will become unusual and quirky but I don’t think they’ll disappear altogether within the current generation.

I think landline telephones (in homes – not in businesses) wil be completely gone within 20 years.

mattbrowne's avatar

Cashiers because of RFID.

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