Technology, new developments, change of any kind and the degree of influence it has all depends on how much money it will make for those who control it and how much it will cost those who consumer it. So when it comes to "futurecasting" I would say follow the $ trail.In regards to the newspaper industry, you really should ask yourself, is it dying because it's a print resource or because it completely lacks concrete reporting?
Consider, "As the media conglomerates become ever more concentrated and grasping, mainstream journalism gets more sensational and trivial."
Also, "'you have to have an informed public'. Mr. Burnham believes that with the 'awful press of today ... you are not getting an informed public'. According to Mr. Burhnam, what complicates the problem is that the current Bush administration has been 'withholding information from the few people who are trying to get it' and neither the public nor the press 'seem to care very much'".
With regards to Television "According to a recent report, "the local TV newscast--Americans' major source of information--devotes some six-and-a-half minutes of a typical half hour to sports and weather and only 38 seconds to international coverage, including Iraq."
Although I do seem to have quite a few of the newer gadgets I don't think I jump on every one as soon as it is available. One daughter has an iphone, the other an itouch, they both had ipod's prior to these which they have very kindly passed "down" to their parents now. I have a Kindle which I have had almost a year now and frankly I've purchased one book for it while spending an undisclosed amount at Murder by the Book yesterday. Honestly I still like the tactile experience of holding, smelling, and yes even dogearing the pages of a real book. We also have Tivo which I absolutely love. We got it a few months after it came on the market and then got a second one a few years later. The newer of the 2 is now not working probably thanks to an electrical storm and we haven't had it fixed yet but the older of the two is still recording away. I recently saw an iphone application that works with DirectTV where you can program your DVR from your phone which is pretty nice but it's this continuity of service that I don't have. I have a cell phone but not an iphone, I have DirectTV for my cable provider but I don't have their DVR but rather a Tivo. So even though the technology is there I don't have the "brands" required to take advantage of it. We do purchase what I consider to be a lot of DVD's and though I like it when it comes with a digital copy I don't seek out digital copies. I still prefer to own the physical DVD rather than a digital copy. I've lost priceless pictures, labor intensive family history files, and other files due to a computer crash and I don't want to add movies I've purchased to that list so I'll continue to purchase the physical DVD as long as they are available.
I do have fond memories of my first record player. I remember when my dad bought it with me and he told me it was for his flying club and I believed him. Boy was I surprised when I opened the same record player for my birthday. I was so gullible. I used to play records in my room all the time. I still have many of these records and though not my record player I do still have a Fisher-Price record player that my girls used as young children though by that time the 8-track tapes had come and gone, cassette tapes had come and were almost gone, and compact discs were the latest and greatest. I wanted my girls to have the same experience with records and music that I had, including watching the record spin, spinning little figurines on the record as it played, and listening to a 33 1/3 record at 78 speed.
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