Well, traveling gets so easy, that some people actually travel somewhere everyday. For example this guy from Kan (Northern France) who have estimated that it'll be cheaper for him to take a flight to London for work than rent a flat in there.
It all stands for development of technologies. The better techs we have, the quicker it develops. Moreover, we need to make a point on lifestyle change, just image peasant from Dark Ages planning his vacation trip to Miami! Hilarious? Isn't it? But why? Indeed it's a good question that makes you think. Today, people have freedom of choice, as Winston Churchill once said "We are free to choose our slavery". Quite rude but precisely describes modern community. Today, people have technologies, it's our small step to make the nature obey to mankind. Of course, sometimes people are dumb in their will, and sometimes this nature control get's out of control, and we face up with new 'funny' thing - ecology issues.
So far, so good, we've determined that mankind have techs and freedom, those are 2 factors that completely change our life.