COMMENT

THERE was genuine public concern expressed for the staff of Xtra-Vision when the entertainment store recently went into receivership, with a number of its branches – mainly in Dublin – closing down. But when you think about, it wasn’t really that much of a surprise.

The internet has changed everything: how we work, how we shop and how we interact with each other. It’s hard to imagine our world without it. The proliferation of the smartphone has further fuelled the digital explosion and increased our daily dependency on the worldwide web.

In many ways it has been a blessing, opening up new channels of communication and providing us with an invaluable educational tool. Want to translate Irish into Chinese? No problem, let me Google that for you.

And how does that Jamie Oliver chap cook so well? Glad you asked, because there’s an app for that.

There’s a dark side too, though. The innocence of our children is at risk due to easy access to extreme pornography on the internet. And many of our teenagers are over-reliant on social networking sites and have replaced normal, face-to-face interaction with impersonal, detached relationships with their online friends.

But back to Xtra-vision for a moment. It has become practically impossible for such businesses to compete on a level playing field with the internet and on-demand TV.

Netflix, while a groundbreaking and excellent service, doesn’t have anything like the range of new releases you’ll find in your local DVD store. But at e6.99 a month, it’s cheap enough to keep us interested.

We can also rent or buy films from online stores such as iTunes. While the prices are similar to hard copy DVDs, you don’t have to worry about leaving the house, finding parking or running the risk of incurring late return fees.

The internet is now doing to the film industry what it starting doing to the music business 10 years ago. Just look at what happened to HMV and ask yourself one question: when was the last time you bought a CD?

Will traditional books also fall victim to the digital editions available on the internet? What about the future of print media? Will this be the last generation that buys actual newspapers?

The rise of online shopping is heaping further pressure on local businesses. We can now buy our clothes, household goods and groceries at the click of the mouse.

Every time we hit the

‘proceed to checkout’ link, are we putting another nail in the coffin of local enterprise?

Now, more than ever, our small to medium retailers need our support to stay alive. Without footfall and repeated business, they are finished.

Perhaps if we can think about this before going on our next online shopping splurge, it just might save some jobs in our community.