Weaving A New Way of Life
Who would have thought that an emerging new technology would weave and reshape peoples lives in any way possible? Nearly forty years ago, what was just a research from the US Defense department, which they call then as ARPANET in 1969, has now evolved into a much more useful technology we commonly call Internet or the World Wide Web a web that weaves a new way of life around the globe.
Internet: What It Means?
It is a network of millions of globally connected computers usually through millions of powerful machines known as servers across different countries. Internet is a new way of sharing and disseminating information around the globe. It is a system where globally connected computers using the standard Internet Protocol communicate with each other worldwide. Some would call it the World Wide Web or the information super highway.
Internet: A Brief History
It all began in the 1960s at the labs of the US Defense departments where Lawrence G. Roberts started an agency called the Advance Research Project Agency (ARPA). They developed ARPANET, a technology that will utilize the then new concept of packet-switching network where packets of data are sent to different computers. Later, ARPAs collaboration with other universities in England and US such as the UCLA and the University of London created vast networks of servers in the 70s and the 80s. Then after that, the birth of USENET dubbed as the mother of all networked discussion groups more commonly known as the Bulletin Board System (BBS). Then the development of the new protocol Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) changed the way people share information at a better speed and quality. From then on, the growth of Internet sky-rocketed and with the addition of Tim Berners-Lees development of the World Wide Web, it has been more becoming popular with all the technology savvy people in the world.
Internet: The benefits
The internet has become an essential part in the lives of students, teachers, managers, businessmen, managers, companies, and everyone else who uses computer and information. Among others, here are some of the benefits of having an Internet:
- Availability of an enormous amount of information gathering information for research, be it for the academe, business, or any other things on the world, is all here in the Internet.
- Doing business faster through Internet, business transactions have never been fast.
- Enhanced entertainment live video and audio streaming are now available to all people using Internet.
- Online banking banking transactions are now readily available online.
- E-commerce With Internet, business opportunities have grown bigger and faster.
- Education Internet offers a new way to learn a new education system where learning is more fun, exciting, and interactive.
- Communication the most important benefit that Internet has offered mankind is by providing available and real time communications among people. Love ones apart from each other can now communicate often through Internet. Communicating has never been this fast and reliable.
Internet: The Risk
Of course, there are dangers to those people who are using the Internet. Risks cannot be avoided in this type of technology. Some of these are:
- Loss of Information Security sharing of confidential and sensitive information can be compromised for there are people out there whom we called hackers who take advantage in the loopholes of the network security. These people will tend to gather information and use them for their own good or for the destruction of others.
- Identity Theft information in the internet could neither be true nor correct. Sometimes, someones identity could be used by other people for malicious acts without the real persons knowledge about it.
- Addictions people may get addicted to the Internet that they will not be able to differentiate the good information from bad information anymore. In return, this may put his life into danger.
The Internet has been dubbed as the greatest telecommunications breakthrough in the world today. Its growth will continue to reshape peoples lives; it will reshape the way we share information, the way we entertain ourselves, and the way we educate ourselves. It is only a matter of time when the peoples dependency on it is no longer reversible.