Technology has become an ever-changing, ever-evolving animal. An animal with a hunger for consuming both machinery and manpower.

Thirty years ago, we were all fascinated with the ability to rent movies on video cassette and/or record television shows on video cassettes. Then along came cable TV and DVDs, which kicked VHS and Betamax to the kerb.

Now we can sit down and hit a few buttons on our mobile devices and watch our choice of thousands of movies, documentaries or international TV shows.

Along the way, many local outlets who used to sell or rent VHS tapes and DVD discs have had to discontinue doing so, as no one is buying these devices any more.

Anyone remember United Video or Vision Video? Bye, bye, Mr Middleman.

More recently, other apps and social media have come along and cut out the middleman and sent him into extinction.

One prime example is Facebook. There are several FB pages dedicated to the buying and selling of new or used goods and the advertisement of small-and medium-sized businesses. On the page, people list more than 8,000 persons who are registered as members who make connections to buy and sell items on a daily basis for free, thus expanding the reach of those providing goods and services for zero cost.

For decades, people needing a taxi simply called 295-4141 or, more recently, 296-2121. Often they either had to wait five minutes or so to get an answer and depending on the time of year another 20 to 30 minutes for the taxi to pick them up.

How many of us can say we have not been frustrated with this experience?

Enter Hitch, an app that allows the consumer to connect directly with the taxi drivers. Hitch’s process is a fairly simple process to sign up for within three minutes:

• It automatically detects your location from your phone’s GPS

• Click “Request Ride” and within a minute a taxi will be on its way to your location

• You can see the taxi’s progress to your location and, if you must, you can call the driver

• When the ride is complete, the trip gets charged to your credit card

What may eventually happen is that the taxi dispatch companies will face increasing competition from Hitch and either, a, come up with their own apps or, b, have to downsize their operations. Not quite getting rid of the middleman, but definitely putting the squeeze on him.

Looking for a new relationship or a hot date?

No time to go to endless social functions?

No more faith in hook-ups from your friends?

No interest in going to bars?

No problem; enter Tinder.

For $3 per month, Tinder allows persons to go on their phones and search through thousands of persons anywhere in the world.

Swiping left means the person does not strike your fancy, while swiping right means they have caught your attention.

If one of the persons you have swiped right does the same to you, Tinder sends you a notification.

At the present rate of technological growth, by the time you are reading this there are already apps in place to upgrade or replace the ones I have mentioned.

Millions of jobs around the world will be lost because of this technology.

Each one of us has to ensure that we stay ahead of the curve or we, too, will become that ever-disappearing middleman.