Libraries gave us power

It's 1996, and you're bored. What do you do? If you're one of the lucky people with an AOL account, you probably do the same thing you'd do in 2009: Go online. Crank up your modem, wait 20 seconds as you log in, and there you are—"Welcome." You check your mail, then spend a few minutes chatting with your AOL buddies about which of you has the funniest screen name

So writes Farhad Manjoo over at Slate magazine.

And how times have changed.It is difficult to think back to a period when there was

no YouTube, Digg, Huffington Post, or Gawker. There's no Google, Twitter, Facebook, or Wikipedia. A few newspapers and magazines have begun to put their articles online

The big question is are we better off today than in 1996?

In some ways yes.As the Manic Street preachers sang "Libraries gave us power" and the web's library certainly has.

Have we used it to its best potential.Well that question remains to be answered.

Personally I think that societies digital evolution is a long way from the end and it will be another generation before the full consequences of the digital age will be seen.