The internet allows for a much more organic flow of ideas from the margins to the center. In the past media was so much more finite, there were only pages to print, minutes of programming to air, and only so much consumers were willing to pay for such media, and the notion that people would produce such media for free was reserved only for the most cultish and proselytizing among us. That the internet has made it cheap and easy to produce ones own media, allows for non-guaranteed money-making, good ideas to make their way from message board to blog to larger media and so on. In the past, only those articles (tv programs, books) that were thought to appeal to unchanging generic audience would be published. Now, group-think need not diminish what becomes centered and promoted. And more there's sustainable communities for whatever interest any two humans can share made possible by internet's vast reach. Honestly, it's no wonder baseball's embrace of sabermetrics and the growing legitimacy of internet media goes hand and hand. Unpopular ideas that challenge the status quo can more quickly topple traditional forms of thinking due to fluidity and breadth of the internet. People are probably reading more than ever, as it's far more efficient to communicate in writing than it is by voice (much less video). We're getting more analytical too, as we learn to fish through pages of words for the information we seek and find pleasurable.