Loading
I remember when I was a kid I used to be the paper boy in my neighborhood. Getting up at 5:00 to ride my bike around the hilly valley that was my neighborhood. With a large canvas bag that brandished “The Honolulu Bee” across the front of the bag. The bike was incredibly unsteady and if I stopped peddling for a moment the weight of all the newspapers would cause my bike to topple over and the papers would be flung across the sidewalk and into the street. I can remember the smell of all that ink and paper on my hands throughout the day. But I was a money-making fool compared to the other 12 year olds.
Then I moved away from Hawaii and joined the USAF and lived in England for 4 years. When I got back I noticed that all the paper boys were now paper men and women. Driving their cars to deliver papers. Man, the ground I could have covered if I had a Volvo instead of a Huffy.
Anyway, now a days the paper men and women are being seen less often each month as people are getting their news from the internet. Adults delivering papers was tough to take for a veteran of the newspaper route wars like myself, I mean what other job can a 12-year-old get today? But the absolute end of the paper boy is the internet. The internet was the last straw and it absolutely killed the paper boy and his job is not coming back.
Here is a quick list of some of the jobs that the internet killed:
1. Paper boy (He will be missed)
2. Paper sales people (They will not be missed)
3. Mill workers that made the paper (Never appreciated to begin with)
4. The guy that worked at Blockbuster (Talked to much but knew his movies)
5. Professional journalists (Replaced by Bloggers who call themselves Journalists)
6. The factory worker that manufactured the discs our movies came on (Another unsung hero of movie night)
7. The guy that sold discs for the videos to be recorded to (Never met him, don’t think I liked him)
8. The lady that worked at the film development studio (She was a young artist type, wanted to be a cinematographer…now she has her chance…hope she takes it?)
9. The nerdy Manager at Ritz camera (Dude was a underachiever but he knew his equipment. iPhone killed him, R.I.P.)
10. The cute girl who worked at Ritz camera (She married to the nerdy manager and now they run a small bagel shop across town)
The long story short is that if you find yourself standing in front of the oncoming internet you should really think about moving yourself off of the train tracks. After recently visiting one of the largest publishers in our area it was shocking to see all the same chairs and desks and no one sitting there. The place used to hum like an airport terminal with hustle and bustle and people calling out to each other while they tried to hit their sales goals toward the end of the month. Those days are gone and yet there were two guys still there. Two guys in a 20,000 square foot facility. What are they waiting for?
Did they not get the memo?
The trains whistle is blowing and they don’t hear it. It makes me sad as they try to string their careers along until the bitter end. They have had enough time to figure it out, read the writing on the wall, tea leaves, anything???
Start something new today….maybe online….whatever it is do it right now.
The internet killed the paper boy and it will come for you next, if you let it. So….MOVE!!!
Let me know how it goes!!
Matt Steinmuller