A friend once asked me what is the Internet?

The Internet is the ultimate tool of communication in the modern world. To help support my claim, I will be citing material from the readings in my class. In order to understand how the Internet is the ultimate communication tool you need to understand what the Internet is.

The Internet was brought about after World War II and more specifically after the Russians launched the first satellite named sputnik into space. The concern was that the Russians could in theory launch nuclear weapons from space and the country could be cut off from itself and the rest of the world. To keep the country connected, an idea was brought about that would connect computers from all over the country together and if one was lost the others would still be able to communicate.  The man who came up with this idea was named Licklider. He came up with the idea and called it “the galactic network” (Adams, Clark). Although Licklider came up with the idea, it would be a couple of men by the name of Paul Baran and Larry Roberts who would implement it. Larry Roberts was the project manager for ARPANET, which was the first version of the Internet. Paul Baran was the developer of ARPANET. He also invented the packet switching technology, which would be used to transfer information from one computer to the intended receiver. ARPANET developed into the Internet that we know today through two major achievements.  The first being Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) which is basically the traffic light on the information highway that is the Internet. TCP controls rate exchange and size of messages; it also helps maintain a healthy traffic level in order to prevent information over load (wiki.org). The second achievement was the invention of e-mail by Ray Tomlinson. E-mail was a program designed to send personalized messages from one computer to another (Adams, Clark). Slowly but surely the Internet was beginning to become what we know it as today.

 

 

            Now that we have a brief history on the Internet, how do we determine what it is? According to Adams and Clark, “The internet is a macro-medium” (3). A macro-medium is something of large scale that can be chiseled down to a personal level. Adams and Clark also state that, “the Internet has become a medium of media, or meta-medium” (3).  However, in my eyes the Internet should be classified in its own medium. I say this only because you can achieve every single type of communication using the Internet now whether its video, audio, or print. Not only can you use the Internet on your computer at home, you can now use it in your car, on your phone, and even your television. With the advancement of fiber optic and wireless technology not only can you access the Internet anywhere but you also can do it quickly. In seconds you can have up to date information on stocks, news, sports or even a last minute purchase on e-bay all by a wire using light signals to transmit your information. Not only has the Internet revolutionized how we communicate but its forced technology to advance with it.  Computers need to be able to handle much more than just plain text. Video and audio are as much a necessity for a computer now as is a mouse to control it. You cannot find a single person who owns a computer who has not heard of Youtube. Youtube has created a world in which we can share anything with the rest of the world by the click of a mouse whether it is a political statement, a dedication to a band, or just a clip of you hitting your 8 year old brother in the face with a giant workout ball. The world is more connected than ever and it’s all because of a piece of software enabling us to expand our horizons beyond our backyards. Without the Internet who knows what the world would be like. Isolation among countries would probably be at an all time high only catching glimpses of the world around us through books and movies instead of being able to have videoconferences with executives in India with the press of a button. With how advanced the Internet is today who knows what we will have in thirty years.

The Internet is the ultimate tool of communication in the modern world. Without it nothing would be the way it is. The world would not be connected as it is today and exploration of other peoples’ cultures would be non-existent.

 

 

 

Sources:

 

Adams and Clark History of Internet

Adams and Clark what is Internet- how it works

Wiki.org- Wikipedia.org