Social and Ethical Effects of Internet Access - ARPANET - Case Study Example

The Internet Summary ment The internet creation and development can be traced all the way to the year 1969when ARPANET was developed in America. Since then, the internet has progressively been growing and developing to date, thus increasing access globally. For this reason, the number of people connected to the internet or having access has grown tremendously and it is estimated that the number of internet users currently stands at 4.5 billion globally having increased from 300 million 2000. The essay summarizes how internet access and usage has increased around the world. Summary The article by Lee Timothy explains how the Internet has conquered the whole world by discussing how internet accessibility has spread around the world. According to the author, by year 2000, almost half of the American community had access to internet compared to other countries in other continents around the world where only a few people had access to internet by year 2000. Globally, about 400 million people had access and used internet with the wealthy countries leading in numbers followed by the middle economy countries. The poor countries, especially the third world countries had little or even no access to the internet. According to Lee, North America had the highest access to internet while South America, Africa, and Asia had little access to the internet. The author argues that many internet users access the internet by the help of a broadband, which can be either a fixed connection or a wireless network. The fixed connection can be used in offices or even at homes while the wireless connections can be used by gadgets such as mobile phones and the tablets. He further argues that the fixed connections are more efficient in streaming movies and videos compared to the wireless connections, which are usually less effective. In the developed nations such as the U.S., Canada, and UK, both the fixed and wireless connections are common because these countries installed the fixed connections before the discovery of the wireless connections. Lee further states that by 2012, many people around had access to the mobile internet with many users being in the African and other third world countries where there is little availability of the fixed connections. For instance, Egypt, Ghana, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, South Africa, and Nigeria use the mobile internet access more because it is affordable and accessible to low-level income such as farmers citizens in these countries because the system benefits them by enabling them transact any money transfer through the mobile internet access since many do have a privilege to operate a bank accounts (Lee, 2014). Lee argues that the Internet is mostly preferred because of its speed to respond to commands. However, he notes that the internet speed varies from region to region with some places experiencing high speeds compared to others. He notes that Hong Kong has the highest internet speeds of about 80 million bits per second. Other countries such as South Korea, Romania, Sweden, Japan, the Netherlands, United States and Switzerland also experience some of the highest internet speeds globally. The internet requires the users to have internet protocol addresses, which are given according to the five selected regions that have been assigned a number of IP address to control and manage. They have a limit to the number of IP address to manage, which makes it necessary to create new Internet standards with a much higher capacity of the IP addresses. Because of the complexity of the IP address, domains are created, which the users can remember easily. However, every country globally has its domains, which are used to host websites lieu of using IP address that can be difficult and complex to remember. Lee notes that the island countries have not been left behind on domain creation since they have created the most wanted and preferred domain names by programmers (Lee, 2014). Today, internet has been supplied around the world through the use of fiber optic cables which are efficient in transferring information at long distances. Fiber optic cables are thin strands of grass that carry information through light pulses. According to Lee (2014), 100 billion bits per second of data can be transmitted in a single strand of fiber optic. This means that a single strand can be used to serve many millions of internet users. Many strands as those in fiber optic cables make it more efficient for this mode of information transmission. The fiber optic cables are not only faster but also secure for data transfer. Lee has discusses and illustrates how internet access has transformed since the early years up to date with the Northern America being in the lead. The Internet started in America as ARPANET but has evolved, in many years, to be what it is today. Only America and few other wealthy countries could access the internet because of the complex installation requirements, which poor countries could not afford. Africa has had the lowest access to internet since it has some of the most undeveloped countries in the world. However, the author notes that despite the low access to internet, the creation of mobile internet over took the fixed Internet in many countries with high numbers being recorded in developing countries. He notes that mobile internet access is the most efficient for small tasks, which have made it the most preferred and common globally, in addition to, ease of access through mobile phones, tablets, smartphones and many other connected devices. All these devices have increased the number of internet users among children, youths, and the mature adults. The accessibility of these devices makes it more convenient compared to the fixed internet, which is extremely costly to install. Lee also argues, the effectiveness of mobile internet has been accelerated by the increase in the number of mobile service providers who supply internet through their mobile airlines. Social and Ethical Effects of Internet Access Internet access has affected and brought changes to individuals, jobs, education, government and social interactions. Internet access has increased the level of crimes and moral decays in the society, thus eroding social values and ethics. The Internet has been used by many criminals and hackers to bring down websites and even steal money from banks and other financial institutions. Africa has been reported to contain the highest number of cyber criminals who bring down websites and forcefully steal money from account holders. In addition, internet access has enabled companies that create adult material films spread their products all over the world. It is so unfortunate that people can still access adult explicit materials even in their mobile gadgets. Children to adults can access these materials from their devices. As a result, there has been an extensive moral decay all over the world which has increased cases of immorality globally. These cases of immorality were not common with African countries until they started accessing internet. They came to learn these immoral behaviors and adopted them thus completely changing their ethics. Furthermore, internet access has threatened the whole music and film industry. Today, many films and music are released free of charge on the internet where people download. In developed countries, there are regulations concerning the copyright of music and films and cannot be downloaded for free. On the contrary, the third world developing countries have no efficient control systems that create regulations concerning this industry. In Africa specifically, music and films can always be accessed for free. Free downloads mean no profit or benefit to the owner of the music of the film. Many people who depend on this industry have been affected adversely by the increase in internet access (Lee, 2014). Despite the negative social and ethical effects, an increase in internet access has allowed people to connect and communicate. The communication has gone levels it has never been. People can communicate through Skype, social networks, emails and video conferencing. People attend online classes from their houses or offices through the internet. Communication oversees also been made easier since people can communicate through the mobile networks using installed applications that enable communication for example WhatsApp and Viber (Lee, 2014). Nuggets of Information about the Internet The following represent facts about the internet that more interesting in Lee (2014) article. They include; Studying how internet access in Egypt was disrupted. Learning about the countries that have blocked their social media sites and the reasons behind this action The information about Silicon Valley as the capital of internet is very interesting. Syrias largest city dropped off the internet in 2013 How Superstorm Sandy looked to the internet Internet censorship around the world Conclusion Apparently, the internet has been the best of all discoveries ever made in the whole world. Its origin and subsequent development have seen the growth of every sector in the whole world. Many countries had no access to the internet in the past but today almost every country has almost about 60% internet users, especially with the introduction of mobile internet, which has accelerated the growth of the internet usage since many people can access the internet from their devices. Though internet has had positive results, it has also affected the world socially and ethically leading to changes in cultures and behaviors all over the world. Works Cited Lee, Timothy B. 40 maps that explain the internet. Web. 2014. Read More