Why life is poorer virtually

I am really quite surprised as I look at life in the modern world at the number of items – once deemed necessities – we no longer need or require.

We are used to hearing how the Internet has changed everything, from how and what we buy to the slide in circulation of the written press in the face of the irresistible march of digital media. And then there is the continued disappearance of so many shops who are simply unable to compete with everything that’s now available online.

I bought a wristwatch from Amazon recently, not because I needed it (because my phone now goes everywhere with me). I simply like to have one – yet I rarely see one on the arms of youngsters.

Once a must in our lives, calendars and diaries have bitten the dust while telephone landlines are seemingly only required for broadband access.

DVDs, a relatively recent development in the scheme of things, are no longer a necessity given that everything can now be streamed. And books (once the pride of my life) are now knocked down to half price as soon as they are published.

Why is this all happening?

The answer is simple: because so many - and I never thought I'd join them - do their reading off the mobile via Kindle or listen via Audible. A resource that was once a great source of entertainment and learning is no longer a central part of our lives any more. Given that, what's going to happen to our libraries?

Future generations are going to live in a vastly different way to those who have been part of my generation. But I will tell you something: I wouldn't have wanted to live at any other time.

My generation has had the best music, best sport, best gigs and so much more.

Things are now moving so fast that I worry about the future being inherited by our grand kids.

But they will never have known anything other than having their heads bowed in front of the mobile or some other virtual world!

That's where most of us are doing our living anyway these days and I really can't see how that is ever going to change.

How sad for all concerned!

Hugh Southon is a journalist and founder of the football website Claret&Hugh