Advancements in the humanities: Worldwide Web/ Internet - Essay Example

“The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow”.~Bill Gates The invention of the internet is touted as the single most remarkable inventions of all times,since it has revolutionized the contemporary lifestyles in more ways than one. It has brought about significant changes in the manner in which we perceive the world around us, by enabling sharing of information at our doorsteps. It has transcended the physical geographical boundaries leading to the creation of a virtual space, thus practically creating an eighth continent and serving as a platform for information interchange for global citizens.

This paper on Advancement of Humanities aims to explore and assess the key role played by the World Wide Web in influencing wide ranging advancements in the field of humanities and its impact on the contemporary lives of people across the globe. Thesis Statement: Advancement of the humanities facilitated by the invention of the internet and its role in transforming the world around us The revolutionary tool invented by Tim Berners-Lee, at CERN - The European organization for Nuclear Research, in the year 1989.

He was involved in the computing services section and was deliberating on establishing a process or a platform that would enable the physicists and researchers from across the globe and working on remote sites to co-ordinate and participate in the information sharing. He first suggested the idea that such large pool of data can be uploaded and downloaded from personal computers via a system of networking. Pursuing this idea, he was able to successfully develop the first ever hypertext communication system which was implemented on December 25, 1990.

The contribution of two significant innovations i.e. packet switching and protocol suite (comprising of both the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol) have made internet what it is today. The project undertaken by the United States Advanced Research Projects Agency primarily laid the foundation of the internet (Firewall Media, 1). The statistics indicating the online presence of individuals is overwhelming (as shown in figures 1 and 2 below). This further asserts the impact of internet and its penetration and effortless assimilation in our social fabric.

The internet has spearheaded a series of technological revolutions in various aspects of our lives ranging from the way individuals communicate, the development of social networking sites, the introduction of novel and revolutionary forms of entertainment etc., creating a virtual overload of information (Harper, Rogers, Rodden and Sellen 2008). Figure 1 & 2: World Internet Usage Source: Internet World Stats (2011). Computers and internet technology have brought about counter-cultural liberation in the field of arts.

The innovations in the field of technology supported by the internet, has led to the introduction and popularization of the digital arts. Digital music for instance has completely revolutionized and transformed the music scene, in the sense that it has virtually eliminated the physical costs associated with CDs, since now music and other forms of entertainment is accessible on virtual sites such as iTunes. The artists on the other hand have greatly benefited from the digital trend, since it affords them greater freedom and independence to handle their respective arts without depending on distributors for sales.

It has also positively affected the artists with disabilities who can now showcase their art via online galleries and promote their works of art, thus creating a level playing field and offering equal opportunities to them, eliminating disability barriers in the process (Harrington, 2008; Smiers, 2003). Although the skeptics have argued regarding the negative impact of internet the potential benefits offered by the medium far outweighs the setbacks. The world around us is changing rapidly and internet serves as the best medium to cope up with the dynamic external environment.