Lost In The Travel Section

The same thing as a Sunday morning with a cup of Joe?

     On the way to the airport I asked my fare if they were reading their emails on their cell phone. They said they were reading a book on an Amazon Kindle. They also said they could read the morning newspaper formated perfectly for the screen. I looked down at the newspaper I had bought out of a rack for 50 cents and wondered if I was Fred Flintstone for not being up with the latest gadgets. What price we are really paying for this new tech?  
     The modern world looks no different from the one I grew up in as a little kid in the ‘60s. I see houses, cars, telephone poles, and electrical wires strung aloft in the neighborhoods; styles have changed, but that is just fashion. What I do see are brick and mortar retail stores beginning to vanish along with newspapers because people can simply go online to buy whatever they want, and get a better price. I know I buy almost every book from Amazon. They always have better price, and consistent delivery and essentially every title known to man.
      I am sort of angry at myself for doing it this way, but I still like to enjoy a Saturday afternoon at the local bookstore with a fresh cup of coffee while I browse and look for the books that I will eventually purchase somewhere else.  I still find it very relaxing and there is something tactile about holding a physical book in your hand and thumbing thru it, instead of just reading a brief synopsis of it and a photo.  I had no idea that people would start getting their news this way.
     Can you really find everything you want and need on a website?  How can it be easier or more efficient to navigate than a newspaper with sections that proceed in a linear fashion?  I do not know, but apparently, millions do.
      We will one day live in a world where people will have no idea what its like to curl up on an easy chair on a Sunday morning with that ubiquitous cup of fresh coffee and slowly read and spend time with yourself, without the time pressure you have been under the previous part of the week.
      Does that make us a better society?
      Does that improve our humanity?
      Are we robbing ourselves of a synergetic connection with the world while we are lost in the Travel Section? Once things are gone, they can never be experienced again.
      They say Britain’s undeniably most significant contribution to Western Civilization was afternoon tea.  Is it just the caffeine or is it sitting down to drink tea that we enjoy. Relaxation and contemplation nuance the rewards of life and your humanity in many ways.  That is how I feel about the vanishing of newspapers and perhaps books.