It wasn't that long ago that if we needed to find information we'd be reaching for a copy of the encyclopedia or the phone-book to find what we need.

Instead we can now settle arguments fairly swiftly simply through the phone in our pocket and a wealth of information on the internet.

Even this newspaper has moved online, so news is available the moment it's been written, and it's not just 'traditional media' which has been affected.

Often people know more about a film before walking into the cinema or about the specific product they want before walking into a shop.

There's plenty of times nationally and internationally when people have been seen to spit the dummy that things don't happen instantly.

We forget that things actually take time.

Everyone now has a voice thanks to social media, but 100 people in furious agreement only really delivers noise.

A prime example is a police investigation - people might think they have the answer, but as any police officer will tell you, there's a big gulf between social media speculation and proof needed in court.

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Another example is infrastructure projects, you can't just dig up a road and replace it with a roundabout in a few taps of a screen.

Griffith council is working on one side of Yambil Street and even in a city as young as Griffith, there's been complications thanks to the discovery of fuel tanks, or wires and cables which weren't as deep as first thought.

At least though they don't have the job of constructing light rail with a city the size of Sydney, to say nothing of the likely ancient piping, wiring and everything else which has to be dug up.

But it's easy to forget how much work goes into a project like that when you're sitting on a couch, tapping away on a mobile phone.

Predicting technological change in the future is a mug's game, but it's probably fair to say autonomous cars are going to be a part of it.

Perhaps sitting back in the passenger seat will provide us a chance to think first before firing off some snark to our friends and remember that actual progress isn't as fast as our thumbs on a screen.

Until we work out teleportation, that is.

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