Technology has completely replaced the way in which we do things offline so that now we can’t even fathom the idea of doing them without the Internet.
Searching for a job
Back in my day (not that long ago) when you were job hunting you would dress in your finest and most uncomfortable professional attire and go from store to store, or company to company to fill out applications, hand in resumes and beg for a position. Today if you try searching for a job offline and in person, you’ll be told: “You can apply online”.
Today there are a plethora of resources to help you on your job search quest from LinkedIn, job-placement services, recruiters and job-search engines like ZipRecruiter (hey btw we’re hiring ;). Searching for a job is a full-time job, but the Internet makes it easy because you can do all of the prep work from the comfort of your home and the comfort in your pajamas.
Print directories
For me, the Yellow Pages was the huge yellow book stored on top of the fridge (why there I’m not sure) but I have fond memories of climbing on furniture to reach it whenever my mom wanted to look something up. Today the task is made much simpler by a beautiful website called Yelp! It’s where we live and make our most important life decisions like where to go to lunch or what to order. There’s a serious condition called order envy. Most of us have experienced this at least once in our lifetime, but thanks to Yelp- there’s a cure! Photos of food shared on Yelp are helping prevent serious cases of order envy across the globe.
Facebook’s recommendations feature is another example of how offline directories like phone books and travel guides are not a thing anymore. Some facts about people on Facebook is that:
- They love to share their opinions
- They love to talk about themselves
- They love to feel needed and helpful
Test it out, your most popular post will probably be a recommendation post.
Renting a movie
Okay, renting movies is an offline activity we actually really miss. There’s nothing quite like strolling through aisles and aisles of movies, seeing if the one you want is available, and running into your neighbors. RIP Blockbuster. Yeah, there’s still Redbox the physical/digital hybrid of a movie rental store minus the minimum wage employee sitting at the front desk.
Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu completely put Blockbuster out of business and they’re coming for the whole film industry next. When Netflix released their first Netflix produced TV series and it was reallllllly good, you bet the big production companies started getting a little nervous. When you go to Netflix today they have an ever-growing list of Netflix originals which means in the near future Time Warner could be the next Blockbuster.
Millennials are killing industries at an alarming rate. There’s no such thing as an offline brand anymore. You need to have an online presence, and it all starts with an idea and a domain.