I notice that certain radical social experiments, which even the most idealistic anarchist fifty years ago still had to appear utopian, are now taking place smoothly and without much commotion. These include open source development, shareware and freeware, Wikipedia, MoveOn and UK Citizens Online Democracy.
I notice that the net did not liberate the world quite the way we expected it to. Repressive regimes can turn it off, and liberals can use it as a propaganda tool. On the positive side, I notice that the network's different trustworthiness has made people more skeptical of the information they receive from all other media.
I notice that I now digest my knowledge as a patchwork from a wider range of sources than in the past. Also, I notice that I'm less inclined to look for well-composed, finished narratives, and I prefer to make my own collage out of what I can find. I notice that I read books more cursory and scan them the same way I scan the web - by setting "bookmarks".
It strikes me that bioethicist Darryl Macer's century-span dream of making a map of all the concepts of the world becomes an autonomous reality - in the form of the net.
The idea of the "community" has changed
I notice that I communicate with more people, but less in detail. I notice that it is possible to have confidential relationships that exist only in the network and have little or no physical components. I realize that it is even possible to participate in complex social projects, such as: To make music without ever seeing the other employees. I am not convinced of the value of these changes.
It strikes me that the notion of "communion" has changed: while this term used to refer to a certain physical and geographical affinity between people, it can now mean "the exercise of common interests." It strikes me that I now belong to hundreds of communities - the community of people interested in active democracy, the community of people interested in synthesizers, climate change, Tommy Cooper jokes, copyright, A cappella singing, for speakers, for the philosophy of pragmatism, for the theory of evolution, etc.