The History of the Internet

The public use of the internet didn't begin until the middle of the 1990s. Internet use, throughout the world, had a profound effect on the economy. Unprecedented access to information and communications was the very direct cause of creating this global medium - the world wide web (www) (otherwise known as the internet). This new communication technology spread like wildfire throughout our country and many developing countries around the world. The medium was in fact originally intended just to relay information back & forth between three or four public college institutions and various mainstream government agencies.

People can connect to the internet today from almost anywhere in the world - anywhere there is an internet connection. Computers, in the old days, used to be these large walk-in rooms - taking up a lot of space. There are now computers that are very small (e. g. ipods, calculators, laptops, and flat screen monitors). It is interesting to note that, as time progressed, computers were all becoming smaller and smaller. I have heard that skype is a new communication tool that lets people talk on the phone via the aid of a computer. People can now see who they are apparently talking to.
The internet is now among an elite list of inventions. These particular inventions include the printing press, the telegraph, the telephone, the record player, and the television, among others.

I started using the internet in the summer of 1997. The place, where I first accessed the internet, was the main library at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. I immediately thought that this relatively new technology was just a part of the college library system on any university campus. Was I ever mistaken.

The places where the internet are now used are on university campuses (in college libraries), in the home, in apartment complexes, at work sites, in government offices, at elementary schools, at high schools, and even in some stores (accessible to store patrons). My apartment complex has an internet café right next to the fitness center. The internet café, in my apartment complex, is a small room, with three computer terminals, three small tables, and a little counter. There are a variety of newspapers on each of the three tables. There are two coffee brewing machines on the counter as well as many creamers, many packets of sugar, many stirrers, many small brewing cups of decaffeinated coffee, and many small brewing cups of regular coffee (also on the counter). The same people are in this room all the time. I am never ever in this room. I am always in the fitness center. I used to frequent this room every morning just to make myself a cup of coffee, but nowadays I make my own coffee (with both my own creamer and my own instant coffee) in my apartment. The number one reason why I stopped making myself a cup of coffee in this room is because the management of my apartment complex replaced the liquid creamers with powder creamers. I found out, after reading the ingredients on one of the powder creamers, that the latter contains either palm oil or coconut oil. I always try to stay away from both coconut oil and palm oil whenever I can.

There are some people today who never use the internet. People, who do access the internet, use it to become informed about the weather, the news media, sports, political agendas, entertainment, stocks, business matters, etc & so forth. It was, first, merely intended to be used for government purposes only. When people, like we have discussed in class, have access to information, they obtain knowledge and knowledge always equals power. The more knowledge we all have in life the more each and every one of us will ultimately be successful.