I just read an interesting tweet which was espousing the idea that the internet could be the cause of distraction that stops people seeing and believing the collapse of the current system.
This could be true, as it is very easy for modern people to get into a headspace where what is happening in the physical world is of only secondary consequence to what is happening to them online.
The physical world is starting to be seen as a substrate that gives you interesting things to tweet about and take photos off to put onto flickr.
I agree with the statement, but i also see the other important uses for the internet in the coming months and years. The internet is the greatest source of randomness and noise that we have ever seen. With tools such as StumbleUpon, or twitter or just a simple Google search (who would have thought 15 years ago that something like a search on a thing like Google could be considered simple) and you can be exposed to ideas, thoughts and concepts that you have never even dreamed of before.
The internet introduces a level of noise into the closed system of your consciousness, and gives an exposure to higher dimensions of information (larger world view, more educated view of the world). These new mental building blocks, when arranged in minds that have a greater understanding of the big picture and the part that they play in it, will be the seeds for whatever people build after these current systems have collapsed