The Internet makes magic disappear

If the article's premise is true, that there's a decline in the belief in magic due to having more information at your fingertips, that's good news to me. Sure, it'll mean a decline in the magic industry specifically (although it'll never die out entirely simply because watching someone perform a magic trick well is amazing even though you know it's a trick). But it also means that people aren't taking what's fed to them on faith, and are looking behind the curtain. At a societal level, this is something we should definitely encourage.

And yet Penn and Teller, who show you exactly how a trick is done after they do it, are still really entertaining.

There's a disconnect between "magic is an art that has to be practiced religiously to be good" and "we can't reveal the secret or it's ruined."

Even knowing how the trick works, it's very easy to appreciate the artistry of a good magician.

I hope magic did not depend on people actually believing the performance is magic? Even with youtube you can not become an instant magician, you still have to practice.

As for the shops, they just have the same problem all other shops have, online shopping is much more convenient.

Article about decline of brick and mortar cites yellow pages. This is a joke right?