It can be, but in this day and age, it no longer is. 

Gold is now an asset which you can trade in for fiat.  You can't (in any practical sense) go to any retailer and try to spend a troy ounce on your desired goods or services.  I'd love to see the look on the cashier's face if you tried, though.  And what form would you be expecting your change in?  Maybe think it through and get back to us, yeah?

It's almost as though there were a niche that needed to be filled where there was demand for a form of money which shared some of the qualities of gold, such as scarcity, but in a form which is more easily portable, divisible and secure... If only such a thing existed... 

But no, here we amidst one of the greatest technological achievements of the last 50 years and we are listening to some jack-off making farcical comments about how they can only watch numbers on a screen.  You go right ahead and stick with your luddite money.  Best of luck to you.