https://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/comments/9m1veo/i_originally_posted_on_rconspiracy_as_to_hear/

There are a few reasons I believe this, and as a 26 year old I was a young child when the change began and witnessed and experienced how everything changed.

The first and likely most important point I have to make is that there is a fundamental change in the way we learn and process information that has been the same for many thousands of years. I saw this change happen before my eyes, from one year constantly going to the library, copying pages from books and citing pages on hand-written reports to typing up a document based on sources from the internet, quickly edited and not fully re-written from those yellow papered, double spaced papers to that single lined white final draft paper. In a matter of years, education has changed the fundamental practice of learning and retaining information to just learning the abilities and practices to simply seek out the information online and site it correctly. In short, we have fundamentally changed the way we learn and think.

Secondly, communication tools have completely changed a world that has been using written mail for thousands of years. Whether it was sent by a bird or in a plane, the medium of communication stayed consistent for many years. The smartphone is the pinnacle of landline phone, radio and television communications and encompasses all of those in addition to immediate delivery of written communication. Many young adults and the people younger than them have been stripped of many of the social developments that are learned from face to face communication, more frequent phone conversation and even how to develop friendships by actually “hanging out” all the time instead of texting or playing an online game together.

Some other impacts include the way we shop for goods including even food products that can be bought online. The knowledge that almost everyone is immediately available to contact and the expectation of an immediate response. Even views on sex have been twisted and destroyed by the extreme depictions in pornography.

In conclusion, the internet has fundamentally changed the way we think and act and interact with the world around us. My question is, with this development still in its relative youth as far as its long term impact, what are the expectations for the future? Most any time when there are such extreme changes there are almost inevitably extreme consequences (not all of which are bad). If anyone has an opinion on this topic I’d love to hear your thoughts.