The Internet

Introduction

Communication technology plays an increasingly prominent role in our daily lives. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, technology has become a central feature of American families' everyday lives, with 84% of households having at least one mobile phone and 77% of households having a computer. Traditionally, the television has been the most prominent communication technology in the home, with over 98% of American households owning a TV, but increasingly the Internet has been gaining prominence. With such technological pervasiveness in society, questions arise about the effects such communication technologies have in our lives.

The Internet is an extremely flexible and rapidly evolving communication infrastructure. Most researchers are struggling with the challenge of understanding the significance of the Internet for our present and future life. The aim of this contribution is different: The main focus is on the history and evolution of the Internet up until now. Like many other complex technologies, the Internet is not a single innovation and was not invented in one day by a single individual. This entry presents a few of the key events and key developments in this history. The papers provides a discussion against the viewpoint of Carr, i.e. the internet had destroyed the lives of humans, and it has created troubles for the human civilization.

Discussion

The Internet rapidly gained in popularity from the mid-1990s onward and has become a major source of information, entertainment, and communication for a broad cross-section of society. Despite claims to the contrary, however, the Internet is not a level playing field. Internet access is not equally available to all, even within the developed countries; meaningful Internet use is predicated upon access to computer and connection, literacy, and reasonable leisure time.

In everyday conversation, most people use the term Internet as a synonym for the World Wide Web (WWW). However, this colloquial definition is wrong from a technical perspective: The WWW is indeed a part of the Internet, but it is only one service among many others

Given that background, what is a more precise definition of the Internet? Perhaps the simplest and shortest definition would be this: The Internet is a global net of computer networks. Some authors add the technical specification that the Internet includes all communication based on the TCP/IP protocol.

Two points should be highlighted in this definition. First, the Internet is a global communication infrastructure that provides public access to all users. The Internet differs, in other words, from Local Area Networks (called LANs) that provide access only to a limited number of users (such as students and faculty members at the same university, employees of the same company, and so on). Second, the Internet is a meta-network that allows for the integration of a variety of computer networks that differ with regard to hardware and software (including operating systems).

Internet and its effect on Democracy

Steven Clift, an early supporter of the Internet as a tool for democratic change, the process begins in 1998 with the following provocative passage: .. "The Internet save democracy or ...