Very true. There are many "lost arts" that just aren't passed down the way they used to be. Used to be that when you didn't know something, you asked mom or dad. Nowadays even if your family can't help you can always turn to google.
My old man never taught me much in the way of practical life skills...off the top of my head I can think of a few things. For example my dad never taught me how to perform routine vehicle maintenance, figure out why a car won't start, etc ...probably because he didn't know himself. Where did I learn it? You guessed it, the internet.
Smoking a pipe? Yeah, if it weren't for the internet I would probably have given it up after the first few smokes...either that or learned to enjoy tobacco that smokes and tastes like crap while burning my tongue off.
I'm not dissin' my old man. He was a great father. Raised more than his share of kids and grand kids to be good people, and taught middle school for a bazillion years. Was active in all kinds of civil rights stuff back in the day before I was was around...he has done alot and lived a good life.
The simple honest truth of it though is that I picked up more of the skills and knowledge that I use for the everyday this and that from the internet than I did from my family.
I think there is another side to this coin though. Can it not also be said that the internet has allowed us to expand our horizons and given us opportunities to do/experience/learn/etc things which we would not have been able to without it?