Amateur radio operators enjoy
personal (and often worldwide)
wireless communications with
each other and are able to
support their communities with
emergency and disaster
communications 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, NY, 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 #20 on 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
U.S.
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 including 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 has 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, 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 colonies 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. Free TV
According to the Consumer
Electronics Association, 85% of
homes in the U.S. get their
television programming through
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.
#1. The Family Farm
Since the 1930's, 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 is just now
being published). Ninety-one
percent of the U.S. FARMS are
small Family Farms.
Both interesting and saddening