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The most striking difference between humans and other animals is language. This enables humans to interact and form a "collective mind" which we call culture. Language developed with the dawn of man.
Some 5,000 years ago, with the dawn of civilization humans made another great leap forward with writing. Now you could learn directly from people who you never even met, advancing knowledge tremendously.
The next great leap came with the invention of printing and the growth of literacy. Now this collective knowledge became available to ordinary people.
The Internet is truly the next great leap in collective knowledge. The fact there is something lost with each leap is simply the cost of progress. The fact that certain people don't use this in a proper way, that is an unfortunate reality.
