> 1. From the perspective of a kid, everything is like that.
To some degree, but, for example, the car wasn't as mind blowing to my generation as my parents' and grandparents'. And the kids today don't seem to recognize it as anything special at all. I expect you can say that about any technology. The telephone (not to be confused with a pocket computer) meant nothing to me, but was one of the greatest inventions ever known to people from an earlier time. There seems to be a natural decline as something reaches greater and greater maturity. Who here is thrilled by, say, the threshing machine? Who here even knows what a threshing machine is...?
> 2. There's a lot of "wow you can do that!?" out there but it's locked in niches.
Like I said, we're not inundated with it anymore. There are still special moments here and there, to be sure, but they don't come around often, so it is not the same continual high we once lived when the internet was new. Again, I think you can say that about anything becoming more and more mature. Going back to the car, in the early days they quickly improved with new features and better technology. Cars too lived the same "Wait. What? You can do that?" period. Now? A slightly larger infotainment screen is the biggest selling feature. Boring.
Admittedly, the driverless car hype got us really excited for a while, but the ball was kind of dropped on that one. Quite possibly the greatest marketing blunder of all time, and as a result I'm not sure the emotions have been able to recover as we start to see the technology actually be realized.
To some degree, but, for example, the car wasn't as mind blowing to my generation as my parents' and grandparents'. And the kids today don't seem to recognize it as anything special at all. I expect you can say that about any technology. The telephone (not to be confused with a pocket computer) meant nothing to me, but was one of the greatest inventions ever known to people from an earlier time. There seems to be a natural decline as something reaches greater and greater maturity. Who here is thrilled by, say, the threshing machine? Who here even knows what a threshing machine is...?
> 2. There's a lot of "wow you can do that!?" out there but it's locked in niches.
Like I said, we're not inundated with it anymore. There are still special moments here and there, to be sure, but they don't come around often, so it is not the same continual high we once lived when the internet was new. Again, I think you can say that about anything becoming more and more mature. Going back to the car, in the early days they quickly improved with new features and better technology. Cars too lived the same "Wait. What? You can do that?" period. Now? A slightly larger infotainment screen is the biggest selling feature. Boring.
Admittedly, the driverless car hype got us really excited for a while, but the ball was kind of dropped on that one. Quite possibly the greatest marketing blunder of all time, and as a result I'm not sure the emotions have been able to recover as we start to see the technology actually be realized.