Perhaps the biggest difference was to throw into relief the inequalities in society; this was the last war where the 'upper' classes would be the officers as a matter of course. Technology boomed overnight - compare the aircraft at the beginning of the war - canvas and wire contraptions fit only to be called 'kites' and treated as novelties by officers determined to have calvary charges whenever possible, to the remarkable late war Fokkers, Siemens and Sopwith Snipe etc., not to mention the large bombers that would quickly develop into the first commercial aircraft.
Arguably the greatest impact in the UK was to radically undermine the social class system; whole estate staffs were lost; the absolute rule of the upper classes was thrown into serious doubt and the spread of socialism and questioning of social order became accelerated in a way that would have taken decades in years of peace.
And perhaps for the first time, we had individual war 'heroes' - the aces in the air were used as propaganda, less so in the UK where the practice was frowned upon but the exploits of Ball, Mannock, McCudden (do read his diary - fascinating stuff) and Rhys Davids still make interesting reading as do the exploits of airmen like Immelman and Voss, the Jastas under Richthofen and the lone fighters such as Coppens, the Belgian balloon buster and the contraversial Billy Bishop (who, more than any other, has 'claims' that have long been debated amongst historians as being open to question). Bishop may have been guilty of simply wanting to feed the publicity machine back home...
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