While many of us have not been around long enough to fully comprehend how TV changed people’s lives (most of us grew up in a time when TV was already taken for granted), more of us can remember the days before the Internet caught on and literally shrunk our world. TV helped us to see the world in a new way, which was in itself a significant impact on society. The Internet, however, doesn’t just show us what’s happening in the real, or even in fantasy worlds—it involves us deeply, in ways we could never previously imagined.

From banking to vacation booking, food delivery to dating; the Internet enables us all to transcend national boundaries and interact globally with any other connected person or entity. That connectivity now extends beyond the use of a PC or Mac. Smart TVs are growing in popularity and becoming eminently affordable. The giants of TV have reason to be nervous as consumers increasingly connect their televisions to the Internet to access media content delivered by that medium, becoming as they do so, less dependent on conventional TV network programming.

It would require an entire book, or more, just to outline all the ways in which industry has been disrupted by the Internet, but the examples mentioned here should suffice to deliver the point. The disruption brought about by the Internet was just massive and little was immune to its touch. This worldwide network of computers changed everything—in personal as well as commercial life.

Soon we will see more major disruptions arising from the Internet, as it evolves into the Internet of Things. This next step will see formerly “dumb” machines and appliances, computers and people networked in new ways; making the world an even smaller place.