From a planet to a marble

No matter the age or gender of a person you meet today they are either currently using or will shortly be using something not even imaginable even 20 years ago. The age of data started in the very late 20th century and has exploded ever since. The internet has linked people once separated by thousands of miles. The world has once again shrank, much in the same way as other technologies did so in the past, only this time, the world has shrunk to an indeterminable speck.
The world has shrunk many times over the course of human history, major inventions always lead the way. The large wooden ships of the Renaissance, the steam locomotive of the industrial age, and the internet spanning the globe in the age of data.
Ships started the whole shrinking process when they finally left Europe and started sailing across vast oceans in search of new wealth and ways to cut out middlemen. when the sailors finally returned home, they brought with them fantastic tales of far off lands, of creatures never seen before. The sailors also brought with them money, gold, treasures, valuable objects that pushed exploration to the limits, to map the globe. It wasn't the thirst for what was out there that drove the explorers, it was the thirst for money.
The steam train is another one of those fantastic inventions that again shrank the world. With the creation of the transcontinental railroad, the time it took to travel from the east to the west coasts of America plummeted from 6 months by stagecoach to a little over a week. They provided a way to transport goods and people to where they were needed. Railroads sprung up everywhere and remained a prominent part of human commerce and life until the ubiquity of air travel.
Finally we come to the present day. The internet finally shrank the world to nothing more than a single point. Now, no two people are farther away than a simple instant message. People interact with other people in real time, without any delay, without any impedance, save university internet. The world has shrank for the last time. Its evident in everything that we do, from our internet habits to how we simply even talk on the phone. We know that we are never that far away from anyone, and in some cases it is comforting, and in others frightening.