Tangled in the World Wide Web by Niki Paz

Tangled in the World Wide Web By Niki Paz

Editorial Article

Every once in a while, something astounding comes along which rocks us to our very core. This innovation is so life-altering and so profound that it becomes a part of who we are, fundamental to the way we think and go about in our daily lives. Arguably the most substantial change mankind has experienced in recent times is the Internet.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the Internet is a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols. In layman’s terms this means when you log on to the Internet, you are given access to the millions of other computers that are connected around the world.

Before the Internet’s advent in the early 90s, people would converse long-distance with the use of simple correspondence. Back then, when a friend moved away, it was easy to lose contact. It took a lot of effort (and even more stamps) to stay in touch. Today, newer innovations with the Internet are only making communication faster and more reliable. We can initiate real-time communication with someone who is in another part of the world. Thanks to instant messaging, video-conferencing and e-mail services, childhood friends are now able to reach each other no matter what corner of the globe they are in.

According to eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar, “We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people.” Thanks to the Internet, the earth is becoming a lot smaller. Geographically fragmented countries can virtually come together to form a community that is able to share its thoughts on worldwide concerns. The Internet has given us a universal medium through which we are able to discover other cultures and ideologies with just a click of a mouse.

In the past, doing research meant spending hours between the dusty shelves of a public library. What once was an odious task no longer requires manually sifting through volumes of out-of-date encyclopedias. Today, the Internet offers knowledge on any topic under the sun. Search engines are treasure troves of information; it has become common practice to seek assistance from the web in order to gather resources for homework, office presentations, and supplement one’s own research.

Databases are constantly updated on the latest breakthroughs in medicine, technology, and other domains of science. With just a few strokes of the keyboard, all these can be accessed. The World Wide Web has become a noteworthy platform for the academically underprivileged. For the father of the Internet, Vinton Cerf, “The Internet is based on a layered, end-to-end model that allows people at each level of the network to innovate free of any central control.”  As a result, even the disadvantaged are now able to accumulate knowledge on subjects needed to keep up in an industrializing world.