The invention of factory equipment caused assembly line workers to lose their jobs. Speculation of technology's future suggests that the invention of computerized robots could do the same. Progress can lead to unemployment. But computers taking away jobs from humans? That's a long way off, isn't it?
No. It's here. And it's called the internet.
By paying the simple cost of connecting to the internet, you have access to everything on the web, save a few premium sites that are beginning to pop up. Why pay for satellite radio when you can listen to radio stations tailored to your tastes on Pandora? Why buy books when you can read ebooks? Why pay for cable packages when you can watch TV on YouTube and Hulu? The internet is becoming a one-stop shop for all your entertainment and educational needs. And it's free. Who can compete with that?
But the internet does something other than make its content free. It puts the user on the same plane as the content creators. Professional television shows have websites. So do your aunt's shaky home movies. Gone are the days of getting a pilot episode approved by a network before it can air. Anyone can release a television show for the low cost of a video camera (or webcam) and a little editing software.
But wait! If traditional television gets shoved out by greedy viewers who want to see their shows for free through the internet, will there ever be any high quality content?
There is a lot of, pardon the phrase, complete crap out there. But the revolution of DIY TV does not mean the death of solid writing, cinematography, and good editing. Take Robert Llewellyn's mobile chat show, Carpool (www.llewtube.com), for example. Llewellyn comes from a background of traditional television where they have large budgets and long crew rosters. Now he's using the skills from that world to make a cheap one-crew member show that is still high quality entertainment.
If traditional television were to go extinct in the future, no one would remember the skills that big production has taught them, true. But this might be a transitional period for television media where media institutes will stop emphasizing the larger industry and start teaching students how to make proper internet videos, and do it for a living. This living will, of course, rely heavily on ad sales unless the web content creators begin to charge viewers. Truthfully, it's likely that television will never completely vanish, but become specialized like vinyl.
Now the problem is just sorting through the crap to find the gems. Publishing companies act as a filter for releasing books. Networks filter television. Record labels filter music, and even though many bands record their albums independently, they won't get as much publicity without companies to back them up. But there is no filter on the internet. Your aunt's home movies website is just as easily accessible as a credible .gov or .edu site. This means users either stick to the same bookmarked sites they trust, occasionally taking recommendations from friends, or use services like Digg that filter websites through a popularity mesh.
Popularity filters like these might be the new age of the internet, but it's up to you users to decide whether you want a service to help with your weeding or if you want to let the internet be the first ultimately socialist source of media, promoting the freedom of expression of underdogs.