Effect of the Internet on Our Daily Lives - Literature review Example

RESEARCH PAPER By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date The Internet Is A Part Of Our Daily Lives. Discuss How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think Today and In The Future Introduction In a moderately short duration, the Internet has astoundingly impacted nearly all facets of people’s lives. With internet, people can easily access more information, new ideas, boundless possibilities, as well as an entire novel world of communities. Internet has evolved and grown to influence how people interact, carry out business, how they learn, as well as how they advance day these days (Clark, 2014). As much as Internet has transformed people lives, it has changed itself too during the process. The Internet can be defined as a worldwide system of connected computer network, which make use of the standard Internet protocol suite (IP) to connect more than a billion devices across the globe. According to WebWise Team( 2012), internet is a global network of networks that involves millions of government, business, academic, public, and private packet switched networks, connected by a wide scope of optical, wireless, and electronic networking technologies. A broad array of information services and resources, like the inter-connected the World Wide Web (WWW) applications, the telephony, and infrastructure for supporting email, are carried by the Internet. In a series of technological breakthroughs, the Internet is the latest in interpersonal communication, subsequent to the television, radio, and telegraph. The Internet as per Clark (2014) integrates modern features of its forerunners, like reaching many people. Still, the Internet has new features also, most significantly the virtual anonymity offered to the users as well as the provision of platform wherein users meet others with identical values and interests. The research paper seeks to discuss how the Internet is changing the way we think today and in the future. Brief History of Internet The Internet as per Howe (2012) is the most recent series of technological developments that have fundamentally transformed the world. So as to measure the impending effects of the Internet on our day after day life, as well as to assist in separating realism from exaggeration, it is therefore, helpful to review the origin of the Internet. Foremost, all novel technological advances in communications in the last two centuries; that is, the motion pictures, radio, telephone, telegraph, TV, and most lately the Internet has been met with anxieties concerning their possibility to weaken ties within the community. Late in 1950's, the ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) was instituted in the U.S. with the key aim of creating information technologies, which had the ability to endure a nuclear attack. In 1969, two years prior to the introduction of the calculator to consumers, the Internet precursor, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), was born. ARPANET connected four institutions at Los Angeles (the University of California), at Santa Barbara (the University of California), the University of Utah, and Stanford Research Institute (Howe, 2012). All through the 1970's, researchers focused on protocols’ development for conveying messages across networks system, controlling networks, as well as permitting for remote networks access. In 1972, when the first email was sent, computers were connected at almost 24 sites, but the number of messages and sites almost immediately increased rapidly. As a result, there were 63 sites by 1975, and in 1980, more than 20,000 people were connected by 200 host computers at government, military, and university locations. By 1992, the number of hosts had increased to over a million globally, and in the beginning of 1999 there were over 43 million hosts. According to Howe (2012), the 70's were researching time, and the 80's were developing time considering that the Internet protocol suite was introduced in the 80s. In the same decade, domain name server (DNS) was developed, and also the National Science Foundation created a system for connecting the ever-increasing number of hosts. As a result, through a backbone network, regional networks were connected, which turned out to be recognized as the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET). While the "Internet" kept on growing and thriving, ARPANET glory ended in 1989, a year prior to the introduction of Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) protocol. The HTML permitted graphics to be conveyed together with text to generate hypertext pages modified to the preference of the sender. And since that time, Internet has been experiencing explosive growth, to an extent that it has changed the way people think. Currently, almost 40 percent of the total world population has an internet connection, as compared to the less than 1 percent in 1995. Statistics indicate that the number of internet users has heightened ten times from 2000 to 2013, with the first and second billion marks reached in 2005 and 2010, respectively. The third billion is projected to be reached by December 2014 (Daily Source, 2014). How The Internet Is Changing the Way We Think The Internet has undoubtedly turned people lives upside down, bearing in mind that it has changed communications, to the degree that it is currently the most favored means of day after day communication (Naughton, 2010). In nearly everything people do, they make use of the Internet; for instance, shopping, ordering a pizza, sending a picture through instant messaging, among other things. Day before Internet, if someone needed to remain informed with the current news, they had to go to the newsstand in the morning and gets a local edition newspaper that reported the previous day news and events. But these days thanks to the Internet, people can read their favorite local paper online as well as any other news from anyplace across the globe; thus remaining informed up to the minute (Carr, 2010, pp.2-4.). The Internet itself has also changed considering that some years after its introduction it was a still network intended for shuttling a short message between two locations; it was also a data warehouse where only expert coders published as well as maintained content. However, these days vast quantities of data/information are downloaded as well as uploaded through this electronic platform, and also the content is owned by users given that they are the creators, commentators, and publishers. Three decades ago, the Internet broadened its scope to take in the information technology capabilities of research centers as well as universities, and, afterward, private enterprises, institutions, as well as public entities from all over the world. The Internet has experienced immense growth, and so it is no more a project that is controlled by the state, but the biggest computer network worldwide, consisting of more than over three billion users (Daily Source, 2014). The surfacing of web 2.0 towards the beginning of 21st century has itself been a revolution in the short Internet history, promoting the rise of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as other crowd-based interactive tools for communication. Currently, the Internet is no more concerned with exchange of information only, rather it is a complicated multidisciplinary tool allowing people to create content, communicate amongst themselves, and most importantly break away from reality. At the moment, people are able to send information across the globe in a matter of seconds, send video, pictures, sound, and also watch football games live. The Internet has made personal stories to be publicized and local issues grow to be global. Social relationships has heavily been impacted by the use of the Internet; thus making people become slave of it. Basically, the Internet has freed people from geographic limitations and brings people as one in topic-related communities, which are not tied down to any certain location. The internet has made the world to be a globalized, networked society tied by novel technologies. The Internet has provided a platform for security breaches such identity theft, hacking, and phishing, and people no longer see it as a tool for interacting, but rather as a tool for financial gain. Even though, information technologies have resulted in essential change all through the society, Internet has made people become their own slaves. In the current world, worldwide information networks have turned out to be important infrastructure, but it has changed the human relations in many ways. The Internet, for instance, has changed healthcare, government, education and business and also the manner through which people interact with their dear ones. In short, the Internet has turn out to be the key social evolution driver. The social communication changes are of certain importance, and even though analogue tools are somewhat influential in a number of sectors, the Internet has continued gaining ground day after day, changing people communication possibilities as well as practices, especially among youths (Naughton, 2010). All communication barriers have been removed thanks to the Internet, and people are now busy interacting forgetting about the important thinks like work, education, exercise, that are important to life. The Internet development at the moment is being wrought principally by mobile communications, and so the mobile Internet has made people to become even busier with their phones, than any other activities (Hanson, 2007). Wide-ranging Internet connectivity through tablets and smartphones has resulted in a more and more mobile reality: so people are not limited to any particular device, and everything now is in cloud. People no more use their free time staring at a computer screen following a long day at class or work; rather, they make use of their mobile devices to browse ubiquitously and incessantly. People think that any person failing to stay up to date with this drastic change is missing out on a big opportunity. Effect of Internet on our daily lives The utmost effect of the internet is truly on the day after day life of the people for the reason that certainly there is no facet of life that is not impacted by the internet as well as its uses. Basically, life has turn out to be significantly easy and smooth due to the Internet; for instance in the earlier years for one to look for a job, he/she had to visits the companies and offices severally, but today all that is needed is a person to detail his/her resume then email it to the company where they get instant feedback. Even also in the minor day after day life activities such as planning and traveling is as well associated with the internet in one way or another (Jiang, 2014, pp.2-7). Currently, Internet can be utilised to obtain the flight delays and timings; thus making it easier for one to plan his/her departure time. All information concerning everything about people day after day lives, from ladies’ cosmetic, health problems amongst men, home decoration tips, to information about the latest fashion, can all be achieved through internet. Another fascinating facet of the internet impacting people daily lives is the aspect of entertainment. These days, entertainment does no more need one to pay; rather a person can just go the internet anytime and take part in discussions with other people of same interests, play games, or watch movies. Due to these and more other opportunities offered by the internet, some people see it as an addiction for a number of people, making them more inconsistent and lazy in works that are much more important in their lives.  The future The future of Internet will be wrought by the changing social technologies, which will set the trend heading forward. The Internet will also offer total connectivity; whereby users will use it wherever they go, considering that its prevalence will be unstoppable. With internet at our disposal, there is no turning back for worldwide digitalization. Internet will be the driving force of progress as well as development, so people must shake up well-established services, products, processes, as well as industries, in order that everyone together with reputable businesses, responding to their up-and-coming competitors may advance collectively. Innovation is shaping and will continue to shape the future of social communications. It is already a reality that Internet connections are increasingly mobile. In a survey conducted by Ipsos in early 2013, it was established that almost 95 percent of Tuenti users between sixteen and thirty five years old owned mobile phones, and 84 percent of these users were using their phones to connect to Internet, and almost 50 percent had subscribed to mobile data for Internet connection (MarketingCharts, 2013). Use of mobile Internet will in the future change the device usage patter; the recognizable means of accessing the Internet have already changed. Smartphone and tablets have made use of internet easier since users can easily use social media, instant messaging, listen to music, and do web browsing all within a short period of time. People will in the future prefer Smartphone more than other computing devices for the reason that it enables them to do many activities in a short period of time, regardless of location. Some of other activities apart from those abovementioned include activity watching movies SMS texting, writing and reading e-mail, and making calls. Still, things will change as smartphones will continue gaining ground, people will embrace e-commerce, e-banking, e-education, so as to make their lives less stressful. Many of the purposes formerly served by other items now involve using our smartphones. Just concerning the whole lot in the Internet world still lies in front of people and communications through mobile devices as people understand them will have to be reinvented so as to make them more digital. Furthermore, the future of internet will be wrought by innovation together with the mobility effect, and this will as well apply to social media, mainly in the field of social communications. Currently, scores of people do not comprehend what they are doing and lack knowledge of the possible development of centers to help people addicted to the internet. Presently someone somewhere, is busy developing a tool that will turn the Internet the wrong way once more. More site such as Facebook and twitter will crop up, fraud, identity theft, hacking, and phishing will also be on the rise. The internet will no longer be cherished by all and sundry, but will be seen as a weapon designed to make some people’s lives miserable. Conclusion In conclusion, it has been argued that people are not passively impacted by the Internet, but actively shape its influence as well as use. Evidently, the Internet has transformational and distinctive qualities as a channel for communication, such as relative anonymity as well as the capacity to effortlessly connect with others people having similar beliefs, values, and interests. Scores of research has established that the virtual anonymity facet of Internet promotes eloquence, as well as the virtual absence of nonverbal and physical cues of interaction, and also promotes deeper bases like shared beliefs and values. However, the limited bandwidth attributes of Internet capabilities as well are inclined to leave a lot unspecified as well as unsaid, and vulnerable interpretation and inference. The internet will in the future be the tool that will change people’s everyday life yet again by creating more opportunities, offering novel benefits to people, conveying additional collective and individual happiness of its users. Just a decade ago, Facebook and Twitter never existed so in the coming decade something new will radically emerge. However, there are scores of areas wherein services, processes, and products may be created or improved anew. So the future of internet is packed with opportunities, and has just begun. References Carr, N., 2010. The Shallows: How the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember. London: Atlantic Books Ltd. Clark, N., 2014. How 25 years of internet changed daily lives worldwide. [Online] Available at: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/464140/How-the-invention-of-the-internet-25-years-ago-changed-our-daily-lives-forever [Accessed 6 November 2014]. Daily Source, 2014. The Growing Impact of the Internet. [Online] Available at: https://www.dailysource.org/about/impact [Accessed 6 November 2014]. Hanson, J., 2007. 24/7: How Cell Phones and the Internet Change the Way We Live, Work, and Play. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Greenwood Publishing Group. Howe, W., 2012. A Brief History. [Online] Available at: http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/history.html [Accessed 6 November 2014]. Jiang, Q., 2014. Internet addiction among young people in China: Internet connectedness, online gaming, and academic performance decrement. Internet Research, 24(1), pp.2 - 20. MarketingCharts, 2013. Social Networking Eats Up 3+ Hours Per Day For The Average American User. [Online] Available at: http://www.marketingcharts.com/online/social-networking-eats-up-3-hours-per-day-for-the-average-american-user-26049/ [Accessed 6 November 2014]. Naughton, J., 2010. The internet: is it changing the way we think? [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/aug/15/internet-brain-neuroscience-debate [Accessed 6 November 2014]. WebWise Team, 2012. What is the internet? [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/what-is-the-internet [Accessed 6 November 2014]. Read More