Some speculation. I don't see Internet helping the US economy. I think there'll be a necessity for bit police since bits is bits and bits are free. Many carry intellectual property. Lots of countries don't recognize intellectual property. They have printing presses to convert any bit forms to any others and sell them royalty free.

Why do we need the post office?

As we've seen with physical goods most of everything we consume is manufactured offshore. With Internet, the bits go offshore, whether you're writing software or whether you're answering phones. This is the equivalent of offshore manufacturing for knowledge workers.

And then will it become an addiction? Is it good, is it bad? Who cares, for now it's a lot of fun.