[Ididntdothis]

They didn’t become much more useful. I mean that in the same sense that a car from 1950 and a car from today are not that much different. Yes the modern car is much better but the big jump was to be able to move from one point to another quickly which was achieved with cars from 1950 or earlier. Same for cell phones. Having a 3G connection and GPS was a huge step but since then I don’t see much revolutionary change.

[nostrademons]

I get your point, but Amazon, Google, Netflix, zillions of web forums, Facebook, AirBnB, Craigslist, Google Maps, NextDoor, DoorDash, Google Photos, all the messaging apps, and many other services all post-date 1995. In terms of how I live vs. how my parents lived, basically all the major changes are because of the Internet, and most happened in the last 15 years.

[ssivark]

Well, apart from Amazon to some extent (we'll find out in twenty years), none of the others have fundamentally altered our lifestyles. Eg: Google -- searching the interwebs is a crazy fantastic capability... But most people aren't really using to live their lives any differently from twenty years ago.

I think YouTube (and possibly Facebook) might be among the only other web services having significant qualitative impact on people's lives. Maybe Uber/Lyft for an American audience used to owning cars.

[apatheticonion]

I don't know, dude. The computer in my pocket changed my life pretty significantly. Don't forget that right now we are teaching cars how to drive themselves. Soon internet will soon be shot at us from satellites in orbit which were put there by rockets which had computers powerful enough guide them to land.

[rlabrecque]

Agreed, though I think there were 2 jumps with cell phones, the original mass produced ones circa the late 1990s, and then smart phones circa 2007-2008.

Also this: https://www.tnhh.net/posts/google-maps-insane-backward-compa...