Now what can we do with this?
Reply
Category Archives: Extinction sightings
The Death of Imaginary Friends
I haven’t been very active recrently, largely because I’ve been thinking. But this is too good to resist. A survey by a face-paint company (you read that correctly) says that there has been a sharp drop in imaginary friends over the last 16 years. The culprit, of course, is digital technology, especially phones and online gaming.
I wish I’d anticipated this finding, but I’m afraid my imagination isn’t what it once was.
News here Bit of background on imaginary friends here and here and best of all here.
Things we no longer do (really?)
I’m researching a new info-graphic on dead technologies and came across this list of things we supposedly don’t do anymore. I don’t know about you, but I still do quite a few things on this list (exactly half actually), but then I’m weird.
I’ve highlighted in bold the things I still do…
TOP 50 THINGS WE DON’T DO ANY MORE
1. Ring the cinema to find out times
2. Going into the travel agents to research a holiday
3. Record things using VHS
4. Dial directory enquiries
5. Use public telephones
6. Book tickets for events over the phone
7. Print photos
8. Put a classified ad in the shop window
9. Ring the speaking clock
10. Carry portable CD players
11. Write handwritten letters
12. Buy disposable cameras
13. Take plenty of change for pay phones
14. Make mix tapes (hardly ever though)
15. Pay bills at the post office
16. Use an address book
17. Check a map before or during car journey
18. Reverse charges in payphones
19. Go into the bank or building society to conduct your business
20. Buy TV listings
21. Own an encyclopaedia
22. Queue to get car tax in Post Office
23. Develop and send off for photographs
24. Read a hard copy of the Yellow Pages
25. Look up something in dictionary
26. Remember phone numbers/ Have a phone book
27. Watch videos
28. Have pen friends
29. Use a telephone directory
30. Use pagers
31. Fax things
32. Buy CD’s/ Have a CD collection
33. Pay by cheque
34. Make photo albums
35. Watch programmes at the time they are shown
36. Dial 1471 when you get home
37. Warm milk or other hot drinks on stove
38. Try on lots of pairs of shoes on high street
39. Hand wash clothes
40. Advertise in trading papers
41. Send love letters
42. Hand-write essays / school work
43. Buy flowers from a florist
44. Work out how to spell something yourself
45. Keep a personal diary
46. Send post cards
47. Buy newspapers
48. Hang washing out in winter
49. Keep printed bills or bank statements
50. Visit car boot sales
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8949090/50-things-killed-by-technology.html
The death of handwriting?
I’ve just been running futures workshop in Germany and one discovery is that people are losing the ability to write by hand. I’m not talking about kids either – rather professional 40-somethings and 50-somethings. You think I’m joking? The material that was written was almost unreadable. This chimes with my own experience whereby writing more than 3 sheets of A4 by hand causes noticeable aches in my hand.
So do I add handwriting to the extinction timeline?
It’s Not My Fault
Who says you can’t predict the future:
Here’s a passage from the original edition of my book, Future Files, published in 2007 (so written in late 2006).
“Transparency and regulation will increase across other areas of financial services, too, which will significantly increase operating costs for financial institutions and will put many smaller players out of business. And don’t expect the customer – however stupid and shortsighted – to take responsibility for their actions either. We will see a significant increase in litigation against banks, and insurance companies because “you made me have it” and “I didn’t realise interest rates would go up that much.”
Here’s something from a certain Karin Upton Baker, who is defending herself against legal moves from Challenger Managed Investments and Perpetual Trustees. According to newspaper reports, Upton Baker says that “lenders should never have let her owe them $18 million because they knew she was not earning enough to repay it. Ms Upton Baker, who earns $360,000 a year as the Managing Director in Australia of the luxury goods brand Hermes, has also admitted she did not read the terms and conditions of her mortgages and that she falsely declared that she had received financial and legal advice before she took out the loans.”
So, basically, any profits Ms Upton Baker makes on real estate trading are privatized, while any losses she makes are socialized? I must remember to add ‘personal responsibility’ to my extinction timeline.