web apathy

With more of our lives being assimilated by the web, I am wondering if at some point we won't be faced with a certain amount of web apathy. The internet has already replaced most of our communication habits, and our entertainment habits are following suit quickly. Music and movies are slowly phasing out their physical product in favor of the cheaper distribution available online. Numerous sources state that books are next to go.

Fortunately, I don't see this happening very soon. And I use the term "fortunately" because I am starting to feel as if I experience enough of the world from in front of a screen. Books are very tactile in nature - we want to "curl up" with a good book, as the old saying goes. You never hear of anyone "curling up" behind a good screen - blah.

Already, as a web entrepreneur who spends much of his time on the internet, I find myself searching for excuses to perform acts not tied to the computer. While this attitude may be reserved for web geeks and programmers today, I would imagine that as the general population begins to spend more time behind the screen, they too will feel a certain amount of apathy towards the web. And this is understandable. We are human beings - living breathing creatures - not some digitized entity that feels more alive when it is "jacked in" to an electronic power source.

And what if we don't take the time to be human when we can? I suspect that society will begin to breed a new class of human - the digital human. Unemotional, unattached to anything but the virtual world, and failing miserably in all accounts of physical human interaction. We can already see the change in the youth of today. They don't value art forms as we once did - the music and pictures and film. Everything has become data, and therefore everything is of equal value, regardless of any intrinsic or aesthetic value. The idea of aesthetics are being thrown out in favor of what we do or don't "digg".

Are there others who feel this same way about the growing involvement that the web is playing in our lives? Have we not already ventured down a path of unhealthiness for the human race, triggered by 8+ hour bouts of sitting behind a computer screen? Are there others who suspect that we will have to some day go back to go forward, in order to regain our human identity and retain our ability to have relationships with one another? Perhaps there are. You're part of this web culture. What do you think? Am I "spot on" or am I just another paranoid luddite?