Paul Theroux argues it isn't:
People say that because of Google Earth and the Net, travel is less of a priority. I would say the opposite is the case. The very fact of easy interconnection, and the illusion such contact creates of understanding, makes travel ever more necessary. The world is not what it seems. The peevish person in his T shirt and blue jeans and sneakers is not necessarily a UCLA student. He might be a separatist in Zamboanga or a Libyan rebel or an Ivorian in a mob in Abidjan or the hot-headed son of an African dictator. Or indeed he might be a man or woman heading to a Bruins game in L.A.
(Image: The Butterfly Man, Los Angeles, 2010, by Peter Blake, from the Mary Ryan Gallery, New York)
The Dish 