18 years ago, on September 27, Google was launched. It’s hard to think of a life before you could Google anything and everything. It’s safe to say the internet has had a large impact on modern life. The internet is used everyday for almost everything. Life just wouldn’t be the same without it. Society today has changed significantly due to the internet, but the internet has changed as well.
According to Caitlin Dewey, writer for the Washington Post, the internet has changed the way life works by not only making people multitask more, but the internet has almost eliminated the phone book and writing letters. The internet has also changed the way politics work. Due to people using social media to talk about politics, it’s much easier to form an opinion. It also helps that anyone can Google anything to help back up their opinion. Sadly, according to Dewey, there are many languages on their way of dying due to only 5% of languages being used on the internet. People have also stopped memorizing numbers, sleeping less, working less, and socializing less. With social media being around, there is no need for face to face reunions. While meeting someone in person differs from checking their Facebook wall, it still completely gets rid of the whole need. People never truly lose contact. It’s possible to just look someone up from high school or any part of life. Yet, people are more connected than ever before.
The start of the internet was in the Cold War. According to the website History, J.C.R. Licklider, a scientist from M.I.T and ARPA, came up with the idea of a “Galactic network” to use to communicate if the Soviets destroyed the telephone system. This was in 1962. A few years later in 1965 another M.I.T scientist developed a way to send information from one computer to another, called “Packet Switching”. This helped protect the information on computers from attackers. In 1969 ARPAnet sent its first message. This was the beginning to the internet as we know it today. In the beginning, only 4 computers had been part of this system. But at the end of 1970 this would slowly grow into modern day internet. By 1970 several smaller systems would all combine to make a larger server. Before the 1980’s a scientist named Vinton Cerf created a way to all more computers to use the internet. At this point the internet was only used to exchange data, but this would change at the end of the 1980’s when Tim Berners-Lee, a Switzerland computer programer, would introduce the World Wide Web. This became the modern day internet.
The internet is a basic part of life. Without it, life would look very different. It would be much harder to obtain information, keep in contact with people, and keep busy. The internet is a truly amazing thing. But remember to be safe on the internet, as it is difficult to keep information private, and nothing is truly deleted on the internet. Have fun learning and stay safe.