Internet Growth - summation

So far, the readings in this class have been incredibly interesting to me. I am a Gen X, and have lived through the radical changes we've seen with the advent of digital technology. I remember making plans to meet somewhere at a certain time....having car trouble, and not being able to reach out to let the people I was meeting know that I was having difficulty and running late. I remember breaking down on the side of the road, and walking to the gas station instead of hitching a ride, and how lucky I felt that one of the folks that stopped had a cellular phone. I remember folks waving flags and posting notes on bulletin boards to find their friends at festivals.

In reading "Networked - the new social operating system" by Rainie and Wellman, one of the sections in Ch. 3 that really highlighted the velocity and breadth of growth was the section on why Internet growth was so rapid and widespread.

1. The US government and innovators lead the pack.... and did not regulate heavily!
2. Rapid and significant technological advances... I really liked the book's analogy of Moore's Law... If progress had been ascribed to the airline industry as jit was to semiconductor industry, a NY to Paris flight in 1978 would have taken about 7 hrs and cost $900. Today, that same flight would cost less than one cent, and would take less than one second. Boy, that sure put things in perspective for me!
3. Simultaneously, computer "oomph" was growing and prices were dropping. The advent of fiberoptic cables really changed how we push data. I was at the Corning museum in upstate NY a few years ago, and they had a fiberoptics exhibit. They had a slice of what used to be used to push data.... a 12 foot circumference copper wire tube....replaced by a 6 mm fiberoptic tube. That's pretty impressive! Corning optical fiber
4. Radio spectrum improvement reduced interference. Yeah!!!
5. Internet remained interconnected. Thank goodness! Could you imagine having to navigate online if different providers had been allowed to customize their own setup? Instead, ISP - Internet Service Providers (ISP's) remains a "network of networks".
6. ISP's in the USA provided flat-rate bandwidth, making usage cost effective for consumers.
7. PC's, phones and corporations have continued to see massive improvements in device storage, making it possible to avail ourselves of the other elements above:).
8. All of these supported the quick and widespread growth of "Apps". It's kind of funny, I really never think about email as an "App", but more a given function of a PC.... Pew did a study from 2000-2011, and determined email is the single most frequently used online application. Of the 78% online, 94% said they were email users.

So, as I reflect on the readings, and think back to how my life has changed in the past 15 years (yes, I was one of those folks who tried the internet out in the mid-90's, but found it difficult to find what I was looking for.... I really did give up and go back to the library, and the old Dewey Decimal System to finish out my BA), I can't help but be thankful for all of the incredible advances we've had, technologically.

So, EME6414 classmates, what were some of your experiences with these rapid and vast technological advances? What stands out to you? What do you remember?