By government mandate, everyone will have to have one by 2006 if one wants to watch television as all stations will be required to transmit digitally. There will also be a device one can buy to add to their current sets to receive the digital transmissions in lieu of a new television set, though it may cost a few thousand dollars, too. Without the attachment, or without a new digital television, the only thing we ll be able to watch on the old televisions are movies from our old VCRs. VCRs are being replaced by DVDs, so their importance won t last much longer either, though. Instead of television, I could get my entertainment from the Internet.
Websites are capable of playing videos, songs and gimmicky animation.
There s not much one can t get off the Internet, provided one s server doesn t continue to go off-line. As more people continue to go on-line, getting kicked off a server seems to happen more and more. Technology isn t all barrels of fun, though. There is a lot of technology being used to spy on people what people are doing, what they are saying, etc. Driver s license photos will soon be digitally taken and will be stored in a national database.