Essentially the creation of the Internet has changed every aspect
of our day-to-day lives, but before the 1960s it was only a figment of our
imaginations. Had it not been for the
Soviets, there is a possibility that the future of the Internet may have been severely
altered. In 1957 the Soviet Union
launched Sputnik I into space initiating an arms race between the United States
and Russia. With this event President
Eisenhower knew that he had to do something to regain control of space. Thus the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) was born. DARPA would
develop a way to communicate with networked computers, which was known as the “Internetting”
project (Day, 2003). This was the vision of a man named John
Licklider who “had a vision of a vast network of computers providing access
to data and programs on a global scale” (Boston
University CDIA, 2008). Licklider
would call this vision the “Galactic Network.”
This is how the “Internet” eventually would come to be, which was
coined in 1983 (Boston University CDIA, 2008). Throughout the first years of the Internet, its
uses would be limited to connecting four universities with the network and use
by the U.S. military. This first
prototype was known as ARPANET. Within
the next decade ARPANET would branch to 50 schools and by the 1982 computers
across America were programmed to talk to each other no matter what operating
system that they ran on (Day, 2003). Within
10 years the World Wide Web would be born bringing the world closer than ever
before.
The Purpose of the Internet
There
was a debate on what the original purpose of the Internet, or ARPANET at that
time, was used for. Although it was used
widely used by the military, it was also used by researchers to keep in contact
with other researchers. A former
director of ARPA, the agency that created ARPANET, Charles M. Herzfeld said, “it (ARPANET) came out of our frustration that there
were only a limited number of large, powerful research computers in the country
and that many research investigators who should have access were geographically
separated from them" (Bellis, 2012). Thus with the access of ARPANET they were
closer to others although they may be, geographically, on the other side of the
country. In the 21st century however,
the Internet does much more than what it was capable of and designed for 40-plus
years ago. Although we still use the
Internet for the original purpose of gathering information and keeping an open
line of communication, it is also used to buy and sell merchandise, advertise,
gossip, go to school full-time, and share data, such as music, pictures, and
videos.
The Internet’s Impact on Culture and
Society
The Internet has changed everything we do and how we do it. It has changed the way we meet our spouses,
interact with our friends, start our vehicles, and even affects our style and
personal appearance. Some individuals
may remember what life was like before the Internet and readjusting, for them may
be quite difficult in this technological and digital world. But for those born within the last 20 to 30 years,
the Internet is an essential part of their lives. Before the Internet, life was a simpler time
when friends were not just people whom you only associated with on Facebook or
Twitter. During the pre-Internet time
one would physically have to go to another’s home or vise-versa to see what was
new in his or hers life. Also if someone wanted to meet the love of his
or her life they would have to bump into him or her at the grocery store or
possibly strike up a conversation in a bar.
Today, however, there is hundreds of Internet dating sites devoted to
helping one find that special someone like Christian Mingle, Match.com, or
eHarmony. The Internet has even made
owning a business on the corner of the street a thing of the past. No longer do you have to leave your home to
go grocery shopping, buy the clothes that you wear every day, get a Bachelor’s
degree, or order a pizza; now one can do all of this and more from the comfort
of their couch and at the touch of their fingertips. Businesses like Amazon, who got their start
as a book selling company online, and Wal-Mart can ship all sorts of merchandise
around the world within a couple of days because of the Internet (Demand Media, 2011).
The Internet is
virtually everywhere that we look and it controls just about everything we do. It is no longer a device or a tool that
researchers and the military are only allowed to use. It is now a tool designed specifically for
our everyday needs and may be used on our cellphones, televisions, and in our
vehicles. There is no doubt that the
Internet has changed the way we function throughout the day and with time it
will only grow to be more a part of our lives
Reference
Bellis, M. (2012). Inventors of the
modern computer. Retrieved 2012, from About.com Inventors:
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa091598.htm
Boston University CDIA. (2008, October 9).
A brief history of the internet. Retrieved 2012, from Center for Digital
Imagine Arts at Boston University:
http://www.cdiabu.com/a-brief-history-of-the-internet/
Day, A. (2003). A brief history of the
shaping of the internet. Futurics, 71-72.
Demand Media. (2011). The History of
Amazon.com. Retrieved 2012, from Essortment:
http://www.essortment.com/history-amazoncom-21180.html
www.livinginternet.com. (1996-2012). Internet
history. Retrieved 2012, from The World's First Web Published Book:
http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_summary.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment