What do these have in common.

Travel agent
Car salesman
Real Estate agent
Insurance agent

All of these are people that you would hire to perform some type of service. The service often involves them being the mediator between you and what you want to buy, sell, invest, repair etc. They usually are paid some sort of commission or fee for performing this service. Many times it’s a service that you wouldn’t know much about, so they also serve as guidance and advice givers.

That’s not why I have them listed, and there are a lot more to this list, I just didn’t want to go on forever. There’s another thing that all those people or positions have in common. They are all jobs that has almost become obsolete or has had their roles lessened due to the internet.

Years ago, these positions were really important. When you went to buy a house, it was almost completely up to the Agent to tell you what’s for sale, show it to you, get your financing…things that a lot of people didn’t know how to do on their own. Now with the internet, you can find houses yourself, get your own financing, and find out all types of information that you would normally rely on the agent to tell you. Now the real estate agent in a lot of cases would just serve as the person that does the paperwork or the key holder for the house you are going to look at.

About 10 years ago, I bought a plane ticket. It was the first one I’d ever bought on my own. I used a travel agent. Felt like I got a good deal and he did all the work as far as finding the best price etc.

A couple of months ago I was planning week long trip that includes plane tickets and hotel stay. I found all of the information online, did all the research myself and found the best price on a well known online trip planning website. All I had to do was put in my credit card and I would’ve been on my way. I decided to go with a travel agent to ease the minds of the other people going on the trip that wasn’t too comfortable with planning something like this on the internet.

So far the trip is booked, the price was maybe a little more than the online price, not by much, but a little more. I’m 3 weeks away from the trip and other than times, I don’t have any plane tickets or anything. Of coarse I have called the resort/airport to confirm everything myself. If I bought the tickets/reservations online, I would already have all the credentials/tickets I need.

There are a lot of situations where the internet is replacing or lessening the need of some of those services. I can only imagine online services eventually taking over some of those functions completely. What will happen to those people making a living in those jobs? The internet is sortof a double edge sword, making some things easier and more assessable for some, and making it harder to make a living for others.