Re: Does the 2017 crash “feel” different than the 2014 crash?
I bought my first bitcoin and litecoin in 2014. Then the market crashed and stayed low for years. I lost interest, and I felt like I had some worthless internet money hat I wasted real USD on.
i have basically started the same time as you and the price fell nearly 60-65% after i started and of course i was a newbie and were confused but also i knew that bitcoin has a lot more potential than that! i tried to understand what bitcoin really means outside of price and that helped open my eyes more so that i don't think things like "worthless internet money" 
Quote
My point? Is it possible my father in law is right? Perhaps the 2017 boom and bust was fueled by such a higher level of public awareness than the 2014 crash, that this could have been the absolute peak. (I don’t believe it...but maybe I’m delusional!)
there was a higher public awareness than 2014, every day there is higher awareness and more adoption but it was nowhere near the peak because there still is a very small percentage of the world that have reached that awareness and a smaller percentage of them who actually did something with that awareness.Mt Gox was well on its way to being replaced by the time it died. BitStamp was well established as was coinbase. Bitfinex had started up along with others. we weren't as reliant on Gox as you suggest in 2014.
in 2014 things were already over and we knew what was going on that is why other exchanges were growing. the important time was during the rise and the the peak and the crash. and during those times Gox was the biggest. you can check the volumes on one of those historical charts that has all exchanges. Mt Gox had 80-85% of the volume at the time.like this https://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#tgSzm1g10zm2g25zv.