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Which current things do you think will disappear entirely in the next 5-10 years?

276 replies

Politicians247UnderwearExtinguishingService · 05/11/2025 23:26

Looking at the world as we see it today and the way the wind is blowing, which things that are currently (and have often long been) a part of many of our lives can you see just completely vanishing completely - whether through the writing being on the wall for them and nobody wanting them anymore, or through actually being officially scrapped/banned?

So far, I've come up with (and there's every chance that I'll turn out to be hopelessly and laughably wrong):

TV licence in its current format. I don't think the BBC will disappear at all, but their privileged funding model, payable for watching ALL live TV, will only be sustainable for maybe 5 more years at most.

Broadcast/terrestrial/scheduled TV.

Cash and all bank branches. Also bank cards - all will be incorporated in phones as standard or swapped for implants.

Royal Mail. I think Amazon will branch into collections as well as just deliveries, with a much cheaper, quicker and more reliable service - probably more for parcels, as written letters become increasingly obsolete.
Also post offices will completely disappear.

Humans being allowed to drive vehicles - also leading to no need for anybody to actually own a car of their own, if they can use an app to summon a driverless pod at any time.

Printed newspapers and magazines, as well as paper utility bills, invoices, receipts etc. No urging to switch to receiving things online, as that will simply be the only option - even for important official documents. Before long, maybe all paper will be gone and seen as much as a relic of the past as parchment is now.

Private bonfires and fireworks.

Learning foreign languages - everybody will speak into their phones and the other person will automatically and seamlessly hear it in their own language - quite probably in the exact same voice.

In-person voting.

The option/ability to live life without being online.

There must be loads more... what else?!

OP posts:
CircleInASquare · 06/11/2025 00:27

The Royal Family

GreenSox · 06/11/2025 00:28

The duck lip filler look and puffed up cheek filler look.

BrandyandGinger · 06/11/2025 00:28

hopsalong · 05/11/2025 23:50

People reading books in public. Maybe altogether.

I don't think that books will ever disappear. I think you see more people reading on public transport now than you did ten years ago.

patooties · 06/11/2025 00:38

I think customer service has already gone. I would happily pay more for a person to scan my shopping, take my food order in a pub or restaurant, deal with my insurance and banking.
i don’t like chat bots - they are always shit.
I genuinely think the days of mass consumption are coming to an end. People are aware of the fast fashion / disposable crap and its toll on the environment. I believe people will move to more sustainable ways of eating , moving around, dressing and holidaying. It will be in some cases a financial necessity but in others a realisation we cannot continue to buy as much mass produced crap as we do now.
i hope fireworks vanish forever too.

Denim4ever · 06/11/2025 00:45

hopsalong · 05/11/2025 23:50

People reading books in public. Maybe altogether.

They have been trying to stop this forever but there are always more people reading books on trains, on beaches etc. than kindles etc.

Wontbelongnow · 06/11/2025 00:48

Christmas cards ,greeting card for any occasion.

Putneydad7 · 06/11/2025 00:54

People spending £300-£500 on concert tickets and then bleating about the cost of living.

Toseland · 06/11/2025 00:56

Women's rights
Single-sex spaces
Children's safeguarding
Trust in journalism
Free speech

Lastfroginthebox · 06/11/2025 01:06

reversegear · 06/11/2025 00:10

I agree with most of these apart from the cars! If that happens I’m out, I’m pretty sure my driverless pod will get trapped in the giant countryside potholes and I’ll never get home! It will freak out if it sees a horse or tractor.

One thing I’m glad will be gone is this current generation of pompous 65+ men, maybe a rural thing as well but my god they are giant pompous bores that “have worked as CEOs” don’t you know.

I hope supermarkets are a thing of the past and we can just not have to plan or think about meals and food and everything is automated and delivered and put away!

I love thinking about meals and food!

Lastfroginthebox · 06/11/2025 01:07

Denim4ever · 06/11/2025 00:45

They have been trying to stop this forever but there are always more people reading books on trains, on beaches etc. than kindles etc.

Who's been trying to stop it?!

Hortesne · 06/11/2025 01:08

Elon musk.

Fruitnvegaisle · 06/11/2025 01:11

I think lots of those things will happen, but (like someone else said), not as soon as in 5-10 years, especially not for things like driverless pods.

And I don't think paper will go completely in all your examples, or cash, even if more financial things do move to online only. I think cash might need a deliberate political effort to preserve though.

justinhawkinsnavalfluff · 06/11/2025 01:13

Ability of young people to hold a conversation. Nearly disappeared already.

Netcurtainnelly · 06/11/2025 01:21

Christmas I hope.
Phones wont be the same.
We will be using glasses alot more than phones we know now.

ChewbaccasMrs · 06/11/2025 01:22

Firework displays unless their run by companies/charities and then eventually I think they'll be stopped altogether and instead of fireworks there'll be lazer shows with 3D glasses,it would be so much better for all the people that own dogs,horses ect and so much better for the environment.

Non recyclable packaging will end.

There'll be a lot more cures for dreadful life limiting illnesses and womens health problems will be taken a lot more seriously.

The birth rate won't increase to where the Government's around the world would like it to be,but it will be fine,I think more younger people from here will move to other countries to take up jobs looking after the much much older generations and resources everywhere won't be as stretched.

I think those that are meant to be in charge(accountable to the people)will stop getting away with as much and will be held accountable and removed from their positions if necessary.

Wars will slow down and become rarer and any that do happen will be via the Internet and programmable weapons will be used to lessen the loss of life's.

OvenChick · 06/11/2025 01:22

Phone boxes.

Lastfroginthebox · 06/11/2025 01:51

Cheap air travel.

Iocanepowder · 06/11/2025 02:08

I work in utilities and it will be difficult to completely stop paper bills. As well as vulnerability needs, we get a lot of new occupiers’ names from third parties such as letting agencies and you can’t force them to give out email addresses.

YourOnMute · 06/11/2025 02:18

Open fires and stoves in houses due to air quality.

GetThatToadOutOfMyHole · 06/11/2025 02:22
  1. More letters in the alphabet.
  2. Trousers will stop being made.
  3. Humans will get weaker. They used to say “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” now it’s 5 portions of fruit & veg.
  4. All food will be blended as people are getting lazier and doing less chewing.
  5. There will be a pair of sort of like glasses you can wear that will make you be able to live where ever you want.

”The future…it’s a scary place but the future is gonna happen - there no getting away from that”
karl Pilkington 2005 😂.

craycray431 · 06/11/2025 02:30

Donald Trump hopefully

Friendlygingercat · 06/11/2025 02:46

Voting in person. Each day as you scroll through your phone there will be a list of measures on which the public can vote and a time limit in which to do so. The votes will be computed and laws will be passed. There will no longer be a need for 650 overpaid people sitting on their asses in an old fashioned building because all British born citizens will vote on each law. British society will become hierarchical with those born outside classed as "guest workers". They will have less access to facilities such as social housing, benefits, free medical treatment and education. The guest workers will also pay higher taxes and be increasingly segregated. People entering the country will be arrested, shackled and sent to the Falkland Islands to work in the rare minerals mines.

BlueEyedBogWitch · 06/11/2025 02:57

Social media. The obsession is already fading - let’s face it, kids don’t want what their parents have, and it’s becoming an unusable doom loop anyway, with all the ads and AI bullshit.

Duck lips.

Fakery in general. I think the last 20-odd years has been a blip, where everyone got overexcited with this new internet thing, and it infected every bit of the culture, to the point where people altered their appearances so they’d look a certain way on social media. But all that is already starting to look naff, and the next thing will come along to replace it.

I’m hoping it’ll be cool to be human again. AI generated stuff will be the pointless filler, like Muzak, and people will want ‘the real deal’. All art is a manifestation of the human desire to communicate and connect. Robots just don’t cut it.

oohyoudevilyou · 06/11/2025 03:01

The NHS (apart from emergency treatment)
State pensions for under 70's
A 5-day school week

HelenaWaiting · 06/11/2025 03:15

SnugglyJumpersMakeItBetter · 06/11/2025 00:10

You really think teachers will all disappear within 10 years? What do you think will replace them?

It's more a question of them not being deserved than being replaced. They're not valued and they're mistreated, often several times a day.