You think the users of the internet are getting more sophisticated? I'd say the users of the internet are getting less sophisticated. In the 1970s nobody without a PhD used the internet. In the early 90s you still needed a helluva lot of technical skill. In the late 90s the internet was still a bit geeky. Nowadays everybody and everything is on the internet and we've gone from Eternal September to.... some more extreme version of Eternal September (I'm tempted to say Eternal April, but that would entirely destroy the point of the metaphor).
Counterpoint: In the 1970's software engineering wasn't a common major, or career path. Back then, you had to have a PhD because the building blocks of the internet, and microcomputing were still being developed. Since then, the amount of people who actually know how the internet works (or have a PC in the house) has exploded. A simple comparison of graduates in technology from the 70's to now would tell the story. The older generation didn't grow up with this stuff in their houses and schools (at least my parents didn't). As time passes, that will not be the case. We have a whole generation of kids who are growing up with the internet fairly mature. I have to think that will drive a more sophisticated user base. Maybe I'm just an optimist.
Just because things get simpler to use doesn't mean they are less sophisticated.
But that's true of every maturing technology. People who owned cars in the early 1900s had to be able to fix them - they broke down constantly. A hundred years later how many people can do repair work on their own car? I've owned a car for ten years and it's never broken down.
