We still remember many such industrial services, such as STD phone booths, Pagers, Cameras using films, etc. These are no longer in use, and the ultra-new generation may not even know about them. The older generation may still be remembering these services, having a pager tucked in their belt, having branded cameras like Rolle flex, Yaashika, and Cannon hung from their necks, or standing in a queue outside an STD booth for his turn, cursing the person inside the booth talking for hours together.
All these are a result of the Industrial Revolution. It has made these industrial services go away by inventing and introducing new technologies to take over them. Convenience and comfort were the keywords for technology to provide new industrial services to consumers. When Cell phones were introduced, it wiped off the need for pagers and the STD phone booth at one go. People could talk through cell phones with the person they wanted in the privacy of their homes or from any place that proved suitable for them. Digital cameras replaced cameras using photo film, making taking photographs easier and storing them in considerable numbers in the digital camera’s memory. Previously, in the beginning, these services were expensive.
Technological advances made a cell phone a combination of so many gadgets. It had a clock to tell the time, a digital camera to take photographs and store them, the convenience of making video calls and seeing the talker on the other hand, a compass to tell about directions, GPS, and tools and applications to chat with other partners and so forth and so on. These advances made watches and clocks also partially extinct. Why carry the extra load when you have everything on your cellular phone? New technologies started creative destruction in the existing industries. Information Technology using the Internet, Computers, and mobile telephone services has threatened many human jobs to be destroyed. The rate of destruction is sometimes higher than the rate of creation, threatening the working-class society to be destroyed and wiped out; it projects a gradual and complete extinction of a specific part of the society in the coming time. The workers lost their jobs due to the industrial revolution. They may be unable to find new employment in today’s IT economy.
Information Technology and computers have drastically eliminated older Industrial services and the need for a human workforce in different areas. Their loss of jobs has created an enormous dent in the global economy. It remains to be seen whether the new industrial revolution allows the creation of new jobs to compensate for the lost ones.
Some industries will remain forever. Those industries that cater to the basic requirements of human beings will remain in high demand. Despite the pandemic, the food, pharmaceutical, healthcare, and education industries have registered significant growth over this period. Entertainment and Media industries will flourish with time as they are based on IT.
The industrial revolution is bound to happen and will make many changes in time. Many industries may become extinct, but new sectors will have to exist. Essential services will have to grow as per the growth of the population and their increasing needs. So, if there is a darker side to the industrial revolution, the brighter side is equally dazzling and promising.
