Online, You Can Do Almost Anything - What's Next?

What can we not do online? The possibilities are probably limitless.

I just finished an article I found in the New York Times today about sleep counseling – legitimate counseling for insomnia – being conducted and proving successful online. If you’re an insomniac, you may no longer need to go into a doctor’s office to get treated; you can download and participate in a doctor-guided online course of treatment.

We order groceries online. We find significant others (for short or long-term experiences) online. We spend the bulk of our day online and there’s not much we can’t currently do. Sports scores, the weather, the news and the latest gossip all can be found online. We bank online. We invest online. We watch intently as our portfolios grow or crumble online. Think about it: what is there that you can’t do online today?

I’ve got one: I can’t send out my laundry and dry cleaning online today. There’s an idea, albeit a bit absurd. Perfect for places like NYC and maybe college campuses; you can already do drop off/pick up for someone else to wash and fold your clothes. Some services even do delivery but I can’t login to a site right now (that I know of, at least) and tell someone to come and pick up my laundry and the specifics of it all online. Use Tide, not Gain, separate the colors from the whites, no bleach. It’s an idea…maybe not the best, but an idea.

We can chat with our friends online in real-time. We can keep in touch with people you wouldn’t have normally kept in touch with (thank you, Facebook). You can cyber-stalk your new crush online. (I don’t, people do. Thank you again, Facebook.) We can watch TV and movies online. We can apply for jobs online. We can order delivery online (thank you, SeamlessWeb).

What else can’t you do?

It’s fascinating where technology has taken us. And, simultaneously scary how dependent we've become as a society in being "connected". If I'm not on my laptop, I've got my iPhone with me at all times. And, there's not a day that goes by that I don't use one or the other, if not both, to find out something.

I wonder what the next 10 big things people would rather do online are and when they’ll come about.