The world has changed massively in my lifetime, when I was a kid fascinated by animation it was flickbooks, cinefilm stop motion, or 8 frames of pixel art. Now there's blender and a hundred other open sources tools as well as almost infinite learning materials online all free and made by people passionate about the topic. The same is true for everything, if you wanted to reach something the library might have had a brief article in Britannica but now you can instantly get into real detail. These things have hugely improved many people's lives, and they're growing.
Open street map is fast becoming the best and often only map in many areas, thousands of normal people working together on something they believe in are helping practically change the world for the better. Aid agencies, cyclists, local businesses and workers all use maps derived from osm. Drawing in roads and buildings from satellite images, looking up transport information, and all the small things build up to a huge resource that's freely accessible for everyone's benefit.
I could list similar examples for hours, thingiverse where people share designs to be 3d printed and work together improving them - for people like me with limited money it's a total life changing resource, and 3d printing is evolving too - ai design tools are already starting to turbocharge this process, we're not far from someone being able to explain in their native language a problem they have and be guided through cresting an effective and cheap solution using locally available parts.
The world isn't perfect yet but it's a lot better than it was.