Internet and context.

One significant role I think the internet has played is to help us better place ourselves in context. It seems that we, as individuals, now have a better understanding of how we fit into the world.

Pre-internet we basically had our immediate friends/family classmates and co-workers plus television and movies. Two extremely different groups that often reflect a tiny percentage of what the world is actually like.
With the internet we can see far better where we fit within a larger context.
Which can be both affirming and humbling.
Affirming in the sense that there are far more people like us than we may have otherwise been able to realize.
Humbling in the sense that very few of us will ever do or think something entirely original and the internet makes that more apparent.
(there are many more ways understanding our context can be affirming or humbling, but those are two which come immediately to mind)