The Post Office is killing itself

I will freely admit I do not know what the solution is to the Post Office's financial problems.  But I suspect decreasing service is not it.  The general reaction from industries facing full or partial extinction is to accelerate their own demise. 

If the Post Office delays delivery, customers will find alternatives.  Timely delivery isn't that important for the holiday cards and the few letters I write.  But it is of utmost importance for companies like Netflix and weekly magazine purveyors.  It is also important for people who send their bill payments via snail mail.  The calculation of when to mail a bill payment for timely delivery just became more complicated.  Once people have found an alternative, they are not going to return to the Post Office. 

I don't receive much personal mail.  I get the majority of my bills via e-mail.  And I resent the companies that do not offer me that option.  I order books frequently from Amazon and some of those arrive via postal delivery, but many are delivered by FedEx or UPS.  And now that I have purchased a Kindle, I will be buying fewer physical books.  I am part of the problem.

Newspapers are following the same path.  They decry the loss of readership, but offer less and less to those of us still subscribing.  The newspaper I get now, in a major metropolitan area, is thinner on several days a week than the newspaper I grew up with.  A small time newspaper.

Nor does it help the newspaper's plight that it refers people to the internet for more information.  Once a person gets into the habit of going to the internet for their news, their affinity for print news lessens. 

Formerly successful industries are fated to be destroyed by our rapidly changing technology.  Records are replaced by MP3 except by collectors and purists.  Pay phones have all but disappeared, the need replaced by ever cheaper cell phones.  Land lines themselves are becoming rarer.  Personal checks are being supplanted by debit cards and on-line banking. 

I don't know the solution, if there is one.  I know I would not return to sending and receiving my bill payments through the mail.  Nor would I give up my cell phone to save the pay phone industry.

Technology advances, cultures change, and industries become obsolete.  When was the last time you needed coal delivered to stoke your furnace?

Technology sneaks up on you.

Despite working in the tech industry, around guys to whom early adoption is a calling, I do not feel the urge to embrace every new tech trend.

I need a reason to change.  For example, I only bought my first microwave because the choice at the time was microwave or stove and a microwave was supposed to be more versatile.  Now, my stove is more like a counter top that occasionally heats up, while my microwave gets daily use.

My first cell phone became a necessity when my car was having mechanical problems and I didn't want to be stranded.  All it did was make phone calls.  I saw no need for it to be anything else.  I don't make phone calls anyway. I use about 20 minutes a month on average.

About a year ago, I finally jumped on the smart phone wagon.  I liked the idea of the Android operating system.  I had become enamored of Twitter and Facebook.  I thought it would be nice to be able to keep up with e-mail and social networking  without having to boot up my computer. (I keep the computer turned off in an attempt to be more green.). 

It turns out that I use my phone every day.  I check Twitter, Facebook, Google mail.  I keep notes for my journal.  I check the time.  I set the alarm.  I have games to keep me from going stir crazy in lines or waiting rooms.  I frequently text Google to get definitions of words in books I am reading.  I still don't use it to make phone calls.

Then my phone broke.  I could receive calls, read e-mail, but do nothing else.  I was phone deprived for a mere week and I was bereft. 

Seriously.  There are other ways to do all these things. I can boot up my computer to update my journal, check Twitter, Facebook, and gmail.  I have actual alarm clocks and stove timers.  I even have a Palm Zire I can play games on. The only thing I didn't have was a texting replacement, nor did I look for one.

But I found myself several times a day reaching for my phone before realizing it wouldn't do what I required.

So it was a relief to see that welcome white box on my doorstep yesterday with my replacement phone.  I spent a couple hours getting the new one set up to my liking.

Mental calm has been restored.