The biggest thing has already been touched on; saturation of cameras and how many people ski in front of one.
People think more about their skiing from a standpoint of how it will look on film to someone else (don't get me wrong, people have always skied to impress, but it was whoever happened to be riding the chair above them right that second), as opposed to what will feel good right in this moment. But, even that's now changing and people are filming less "gnarly" or tech stuff and more "this is how I ski on a regular day on a regular mountain with a regular park", which I think is really cool.
Newschoolers, and the internet in general has connected all of the little enclaves that popped up all over the world in the late 90's and early 00's and there's a lot less regionalism. I feel like it's a lot more likely for an average skier to pursue skiing in the summer and/or to travel to ski in new places, largely thanks to NS and the internet connecting likeminded people.
I guess to sum up a lot of what I've noticed as a guy who's 30 and a skier is that the changes in skiing reflect the larger changes in our world. People film everything they do and there's a desire to have a voice and to have other people hear it. And, the ski community has become global and much more integrated like most other aspects of life.
More specific to skiing is the fact that there's more specialization and "niche-ization" (which you can really say about all extreme...err....action sports....fuck those terms are painful to say, type, or hear. We gotta do better.) It used to be that the pros and top tier skiers came from race or mogul backgrounds, or at the very least, mountain hippy/ski enthusiast parents. Now, you see kids who's entry point is rail skiing which was unheard of even 15-20 years ago when a lot of slightly older people started to get into the park. Back then, most people spent a huge amount of time "just skiing" before approaching skiing like a skater approached skateboarding, now not at all. The pros and top-tier skiers of yesteryear jumped, hit rails, skied pipe, hit powder booters, competed, etc. Today, sure there's guys and gals who truly do it all and kill it, for the most part, people gravitate towards more specific elements, whether because of circumstance/access or interest.
There's a lot more stuff, and this is a cool thread. Looking forward to other (old) people's thoughts and I'll post more if I think of any.
OOH! Last thing: Number of people venturing beyond resort boundaries/touring equipment production and sales is basically a brand new phenomenon in the last 5-7 years.
