According to recent research by the UK Online Measurement company (UKOM), we are now spending 65% more time online than we did three years ago. The growth in our devotion to online activity now means that the average surfer spends a whopping 22 hours and 15 minutes on the net each month.

The vast majority of this time is spent on social networks and blogs, which account for nearly a quarter, with e-mail a distant second occupying just over 7%.

Whilst a lot of our time is spent ‘chatting’ to friends online and furthering our knowledge of the big, wide world, we also use the web to do every day tasks like shopping, banking, reading the news and checking the weather. It’s not difficult to understand why, as going online is often easier, cheaper and more convenient.

However, as easy, cheap and convenient as the web may be, a lot of us do not have, or want, the option. Adults who are not online, the so-called "digitally excluded", still represent more than a quarter of the population. Indeed, Ofcom has estimated that 63% of people over 65 live in a household without internet access (50% of those aged 65-74, and 77% of those aged 75 and over).

So, will those of us that do not want to ride the information superhighway suffer as more and more services move online? Will those who do not have access to the internet see their much needed high street shops and services disappear? Will we have less choice? In general, I don’t think so.

The genius of the web is that it provides more choice, not less. In its infancy, many businesses feared the internet because of the threat of cheap products offered by companies with virtually no overheads. Nowadays, most businesses use the internet in addition to their normal methods of reaching customers to improve and increase their accessibility. These businesses know that the majority of their customers still want to see them and talk to them face-to-face.

It is true that a number of sectors have changed permanently as a result of the online revolution, and undoubtedly others will follow. Newspapers, books, holidays, music and DVD sales have all been significantly affected because of online competition, but I can still get a paper from a newsagent, book my summer holiday at a travel agent and buy a CD in a shop.

As our elder generations are succeeded by those more familiar and comfortable with the web, businesses will evolve to meet the needs and demands of the internet-savvy younger generations. This will, without doubt, impact on the way our society goes about its everyday functions in the future; but, whilst humans still have the need to touch, feel, see, hear, smell, and retain a desire to interact with others, we will always have the choice of meeting the people we do business with and talking to them face-to-face.