Medical, nutrition, transportation and information advances have demonstrably improved the quality of life. Our technology has clearly reduced physical pain and suffering. On the other hand, human thought doesn't seem to have changed much. Our society has not produced and does not now seem to have a place for minds like that of Jefferson, Lincoln or Einstein. Additionally, so many of us simply rush to whatever is newest, fastest, etc.
Humans are the creators, our tools can only help.
We can meet people with common interests, we can learn about almost any subject, we can do remarkable research while sitting at our own desk, we can obtain shareware programs that will do almost anything imaginable. Yet, too many Web sites seem utterly devoid of anything to say. I don't mean to say that sites with great graphics and multi-media are a waste. We are still at the initial point of being mesmerized by the technology itself. This will pass after a few years.