Not going to try to make a deep post here. I think we all forget sometimes just how radically the internet has upset the world. Its full effects have still not shaken out.
The "sharing economy" has enabled residence-owners of all sorts to make money as innkeepers, and car-owners to make money as taxis. There is no reason that in the age of newspapers this same economy could not have taken off, but it didn't. The way the web ties together the advertisement / information / seeker and gives all of them tools to verify and meet one another within minutes is unprecedented. The seeker (of a room or taxi) can sort through hundreds of possibilities and reviews from former customers. And of course the fact that you can do this on the go from your mobile device only increases the convenience and power of these tools.
From an economics point-of-view, this sort of sharing seems to take money away from corporations (hotels, taxi services) and move it to individuals. It's great from a price-competitive POV for consumers. I could stay in Chicago in great accomodations for $74 / night. Comparatively for the location and amenities I would be saving hundreds over a trip. My savings represent a loss of income for corporations, of course, but increase income for the residence owner and myself.
Information sharing has always been possible, but the barrier to access of the information was higher in terms of time and effort. You had to go to the library, and even then finding just what you were looking for required some effort. Finding the right book from the catalog is not trivial. Reading through a book is harder than finding an exact question (or answer) online.
So in addition to changing our economic habits, the internet has made an indelible impact on religion. Sure, it helps to get tons of propaganda, myth and misinformation out there. But it also contains amazing websites with fantastic indices on creationism and history. Internet forum websites where people debated issues made a huge impact on the evolution of my own thinking. And I do think that without the internet, stories like these wouldn't exist.
