24 things about to become extinct in America

24. Yellow Pages  This year will be pivotal for the global Yellow Pages industry. Much like newspapers, print Yellow Pages will 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 fall off 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=2 0newspapers are not far behind them.

22. Movie Rental Stores While Netflix is looking up at the moment, Blockbuster keeps closing store locations by the 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. Th e 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. Overfishing, 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, irridescent 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 Ohio 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 communi cations 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, N.Y., 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 Lightbulb (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 to 12 years.

11. Stand-Alone Bowling Alleys BowlingBalls.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 includ ing 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 coverage. 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 c olonies 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 programming20through 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’l l 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.

Thanks Ronnie

26 thoughts on “24 things about to become extinct in America”

  1. Yellow Pages – I haven’t used the Yellow Pages in probably 20 years. Around here they still deliver them every spring…we now get them from 3 different companies, both white and yellow, plus one blue pages. That’s 7 big books that nobody wants left on your front porch. The rubbish collectors and paper recyclers won’t take them for some reason, so you have to bury them in the kitchen garbage or do a nighttime drive-by and throw them onto the front lawn of the phone companies at night.

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  2. I live in Baltimore, so crabs are a requirement for summer barbecues. I think they’re pretty gross to begin with, but since they’ve been coming from outside the Chesapeake for the last few years, and they’ve been introducing non-native species to the area, they’ve tasted particularly fishy and gross the last few years. Plus, they keep getting smaller and smaller, and more and more expensive. Life just won’t be the same when we can’t sing “Crabs for Christmas.” 🙁

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  3. We Need Honey Bees. They pollinate plants, flowers, tomatoe or tomato, veggies, plus honey.

    I totally agree with DJ’s last sentence. 🙂

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  4. Kate, if the crabs are getting smaller and more costly, catch your own. It is very easy, grab a coffee filter and head down to the nearest gas station,throw a toothpik into the toilet and stand bach, those little ones can pole vault into your coffee filter.

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  5. I agree with KLAW. I’d much rather buy Incandescents than CFLs. LED lighting will make it big as soon as the bandwagon wave recedes for those stupid CFLs.

    And I think it’s completely ironic that they even include global warming and invasive species on the crab threat down. Seriously, if the harvest is shrinking I’d think it’s a clue to NOT HARVEST them for a couple of years.

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  6. As a born and raised Baltimoron I hate watching the crab population dwindle. More that anything else listed it’s the ignorant people who are to blame. 10 years ago it was unheard of to EVER eat a female blue crab, but when the prices really began to spike females started to show up and were usually significantly cheaper than the males as they are less flavorful and still relatively plentiful. Selling females while trying to restore population may be the dumbest shit ever… no Bush administration action even compares in plain stupidity. A single male produces millions and millions of sperm and can fertilize many females, but a female blue crab produces only 1-8 million eggs and, given the numbers they’re consumed in, every egg is crucial. If you eat a male, another male can fill the spot, but if you eat a female those eggs… and those future crabs… are gone forever.

    I have been offered females before and I have ALWAYS refused them (sometimes politely and sometimes not). I ask that you have some shred of self respect and, if given the opportunity, you do the same.

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  7. C’est vrai que tout change. Comme l’on crée son site internet soi même en se mettant en ligne l’on devrait pouvoir dans un très proche avenir créer SA banque personnelle. Banque uniquement attachée à l’identité.

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  8. Wow, I had no idea milkmen still existed.

    Other things I expect to be gone in the next 5 years, off the top of my head:

    Video game arcades – Ever since game consoles bridged the graphics gap, these have been in steady decline.

    CRT displays – Pretty much everything is LCD or Plasma. I don’t even see these sold anymore.

    Hard disk drives – Flash memory technology advances have skyrocketed recently. In five years, computers will have 50 terabyte solid state flash drives, and no spinning disk.

    Book/music stores – The mom and pop stores have all been killed by Amazon and iTunes. It’s only a matter of time before stores like Borders and Barnes and Noble are killed off.

    Paper maps – GPS devices and services like Google Maps have removed the need for folded printed maps.

    Other magazines – Electronic Gaming Monthly was put out of operation last month without a warning. It’s hard for magazines to get exclusive content when the Internet can break news seconds after it happens. No one wants to wait three weeks to read about old news. Sites like Kotaku are far more convenient (and free).

    Newspaper tabloids – Blogs like TMZ can disseminate gossip much faster and cheaper than newspapers.

    Radio shows – Perhaps not, but iPods taken listeners away. With no listeners, stations won’t get as much revenue from advertisers, and might have to pull their DJs and morning shows or go out of business completely.

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  9. I don’t know where the data came from, but stand-alone bowling alleys are growing in the Atlanta area. As an avid bowler, I know of two that have opened just in one county in the last year.

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  10. Oh, I remember well the mailkman. He used to put milk into the insulated container on our back porch and it was my job to retrieve the milk when I got home from school. Of course, I would forget the milk from time to time and it would spoil. My mom was not a happy camper.

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  11. Plus some terminology going way – how do you explain clock-wise/counter-clockwise to someone that’s only seen digital time. Another is dialing a telephone or other things such as spinning the dial. When you’re in a pushbutton world, you don’t spin the dial.

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  12. I liked drive-in movie theaters. There cool. I still like the yellow pages for the coupons. One year the yellow pages had a coupon for 6 free donuts. I went to a local apartment complexe and picked up about a dozen of them. That was so great………

    Actual conversation when I was 13

    very old teacher “We are going to learn how to write a hand-written letter”
    me “why?”

    very old teacher “It will be useful when you have to communicate with your friends”
    me “why cant i just talk to them?”

    very old teacher “They might live far away one day”
    me “why cant i just call them?”

    very old teacher “You might want to make sure you communicate everything without forgetting something”
    me “why cant I just email them?”

    very old teacher “They might not have email”
    me “or text messaging?”

    note: at the time I had 3 penpals who i emailed weekly 2 outside of america

    very old teacher “There is still value in writing it all down by hand first”
    me “So like faxing it?

    Nevertheless to say i was still forced to do the assignment i had to write a hand written letter in cursive on unlined paper without any cross-outs or ink bloats. It took me 8 attempts. I have vowed to never ever write a paper letter ever again, to date this has yet to be a problem.

    You know else is going to die? Cursive. I know an english teacher that has actually stopped teaching it. Good riddance!

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  13. I hear you, isiah. A few months back my son told me he had to submit a hand written resume for a job, they wouldn’t accept any online or computer generated ones. I shrugged and told him to go for it. My chin fell right off my face when he told me he couldn’t write. Being that he made good (fair) grades in school, I thought he was BS’ing me. Turns out that he wasn’t and they were always allowed to print everything by hand but mostly depended on using the computer for all else. I was stunned. He prints really well but his writing looks like chicken scratch and that’s after a lot of practice, now.

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  14. Bella – as a middle school teacher, I can tell you that handwriting has fallen by the wayside. Students arrive in 6th grade unable to read or write cursive, and of course, I have curriculum to teach (for the NCLB-mandated testing) so I don’t have time to teach it. Thus, printing is accepted.

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  15. I grew up in Bellingham, in Whatcom County (Whatcom being the Salish native word for “noisy waters”, the county being crammed with little creeks and waterfalls) and know exactly the pools they are talking about. I hope they shut those things off from the public, as last time I went they were infested with frat boys and their disgusting leavings. The Pixie Pools, as they are locally known, are better than that, and the yearly plagues of college kids to Western Washington University were taking too many liberties with that enchanted place.

    The Whatcom pools should only be available to those willing to risk a little trespassing charge once in a while. Like me!

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  16. Thanks for that, chris. I was mostly a single Mum and always paid attention to everything with my son. I actually was mad at myself because I didn’t believe him. Boy, was I wrong.

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