After being away from the hobby for about 8 years I was surprised by some of the changes.
And I guess I must be getting old because I do not like most of them.

Smaller Radios
Like the trend in cell phones, our rigs have gotten smaller. Now this is not too bad an idea of one is thinking of going low power or pedestrian, what they call HF Packing But the idea of having a small base station is not too appealing. Not at all like the manly button filled big radios of the past. Instead we see small sized radios on the market. These radios feature complex multi nested electronic menus which are hard to memorized and full of features most of us will never need let alone use. Every one of the few buttons on the radio has to work overtime with at least two functions assigned to it, sometime more. And you would think the screens on these would rival those of our cell phones. Instead, you get pre-etched LED and an ugly looking digital meter. You would think that in this day and age you could at least control what shows up on the screen or that they could duplicate the look and feel of the analog meters.

Now don't get me wrong, the radios work great, it's just that they are no longer a manly size. Instead they are a pansy size more attune for the feminine of the species than for us men.

Echolink.
This was the biggest surprise of them all, Echolink. Now who thought this up and why has the FCC allowed its use? I could not quite believe what echolink was as I read about it online. My first thought was "Why is this necessary?" and my second thought was "Why is this being allowed on the radio?" Echolink is not radio. It is Aiming to another repeater and making believe it is radio. I can not for the life of me understand why it exists. If you wish to talk to someone outside your repeater range, then get a freaking license class and equipment where you can talk HF. HF is for distance. You do not go and "Cheat", through IM and then call it radio. Clarification here: Echolink is not radio!!!!!! It is using the internet to talking remotely to a repeater you otherwise would not have made it into.

I also fail to see why repeater owners are installing echolink. Don't encourage this nonsense!!. It's not different than calling by phone into a California repeater from New York City. It is not radio!!! People should be corrected whenever possible when they mistakenly call Echolink radio. It is not. And the use of echolink can depress the need to upgrade one's license to the point where you can talk HF. I believe that the use of Echolink should be solely to allow one to listen to conversations on far away repeaters and that is it. For those who say, "you are being old fashion", "the CW, AM, FM trends had the same opposition" I say, at least they were radio, not the internet masquerading as radio. We are Amateur Radio operators, not Internet operators. If you can't make it there with your own signal then you just can't. If you have to resort to the use of the internet, then it is not radio. It's cheating plain and simple and you are just fooling yourself thinking you are a Radio Operator. Do you know that you can IM with someone else without the radio. So go do that, but don't IM to a repeater and consider it radio. You are fooling yourself if you think you are.

Signal Exchanges.
Lastly I am very disappoint by what is not happening in Amateur Radio. That being conversations. Yes I do hear some, mostly between people who already know each other, have a sked, etc. But not too many between strangers. I find more people having conversations on local repeaters than I do on HF. On HF all I hear are

N2LRB: "CQ, CQ, CQ This is N2LRB calling CQ."

KC2PGC: "N2LRB this is KC2PGC."

N2LRB: "KC2PGC, this is N2LRB, you are coming in 5-9 here in Oakland, CA."

KC2PGC: "N2LRB, thanks for getting back to me, you are 5-9 here into New York, handle here is Ed."

N2LRB: "Ok Ed, handle here is Jose, 73."

KC2PGC: "73 from KC2PGC."

The exchange took less than 15 seconds and is seems to be the average qso content and duration. Use to be a time when people actually exchanged information, where do you live, what do you do, how is the weather and even what kind of equipment are you running? But now everything is a signal report. It's good to know one's equipment is working, but what is the use of having equipment in good working order if one does not then use it for something meaningful? Good will, understanding and tolerance are not built on signal reports. I recommend spending a good five minutes getting to know each other. Get to know your fellow ham. And please feel free to distribute the below graphic.