The Developement of Facebook, and the Extinctions Occuring as a Result

Facebook has aided in eliminating what were once natural activities and tendencies

 There is no ignoring that Facebook is currently dominating the world, being the second most visited site worldwide, and sitting atop the social media pyramid. Topping 1 billion users this month, the popularity of Facebook is undeniable. But with one great technological advancement, another tends to die. This is further explained in an article by Style and Tech.

Land-line phones are only found in 75% of U.S. households with the development of cell phones. In this age of instant message transfer via the internet, fax machines are also on the way out. Credit cards are believed to be on their way out as smartphones have developed a technology to swipe in place of a plastic card. DVD players are struggling now that Netflix and other movie playing programs are available on gaming consoles and internet TV. So with the development of the social media powerhouse that is Facebook, it is only realistic that other things will die.
  With the worldwide utilization of Facebook, several activities and tendencies that were once common practice have become nearly extinct.

 

 The need for writing and sending non-professional letters through the mail is nearly extinct

There was a time not so long ago when in order to contact someone far away, you had to address, stamp, and mail a handwritten letter. With the invention of email, this became less necessary, and with the creation of Facebook, it has become nearly extinct. Contacting a peer is as easy as logging on to Facebook, visiting their page, and writing whatever is desired on their wall. They instantly receive it and can read it on their own time. This makes the process of sending a letter a seem as though its a process of the stone age. Not to mention, sending a letter requires paying for a stamp, while Facebook is a free service. An article on Pennlive.com discusses that the USPS is delivering billions and billions less peices of mail each year, and many post offices are closing. It is further explained that this is due to the lack of "friendly" mail. This is the mail people send just to chat with each other. Facebook has completely eradicated this form of communication, and the art of writing a letter of a non-professional nature is declining. Some statistics from USPS point out just how major this decline has become. Total mail volume has decreased by 20 percent since 2006 (awfully close to when Facebook came about). Also since 2006, USPS has been consistently losing money, and finds itself 15 billions dollars in debt. 

 

The use of the yellow pages to look up phones numbers, as well as the memorization of numbers is nearly extinct thanks to Facebook

It is often no longer necessary to flip though those heavy, ugly phones books that were once so prevalent in our households. A quick search on Facebook allows us to pull up the numbers of those we desire to reach, barring they have am account (which we know most do). Phone books used to automatically be delivered, but according to an article from USA Today, Verizon and At&T are starting to stop automatic delivery. AT&T company spokes woman Dawn Benton says, "We all know fewer and fewer people use the phone book each year...It's an antiquated industry." Those of the pre-Facebook and cell phone era were taught to memorize important numbers, and many can still reel off the numbers they have memorized long ago. Now, one may struggle to recall the number of their closest friend off the top of their head. Facebook, as well as other online services, allow people to share their number with other users online and instantly, and this is causing the phone book and memorization of numbers to become extinct.

 

Developing photos in order to create physical albums is longer longer neccesary

The days of taking film to a camera store to get developed are coming to an end. Aside from high end professional photographers, most people are using the computer to store that photos in data form. Facebook has become a go to way for people to save photos albums and share them with others. The "Timeline" layout of Facebook capitalizes on the photo aspect of the site, displaying wall posts and photos in chronological order. Its amazing to view somebodies timeline, seeing photos going all the way back to way to 2004 when Facebook was created. For many, Facebook is the sole safe-keeper for all of their photos of the past decade. User can store thousands of photos, with out a single trip to have them developed.

Physical photo albums are still lingering around, but are becoming more and more of a rarity. The above video shows how easily one can upload and save photos to Facebook.

Facebook continues to cause other technologies to become extinct, and one may wonder when the day will come when Facebook itself gets a dose of its own medicine.