How the Internet Has Changed Our Lives
Thousands of miles of cables crisscross the world to bring you the internet. Even more are laid on the ocean floor. The modern internet is supported by 300 such submarine cables. Most are made from hair-thin fibre optics and carry data at the speed of light. This means that your computer can easily send and receive data from anywhere. Then, all you have to do is send your request to the server. In a matter of seconds, the data will be sent back to your computer.
The Internet has the capacity to serve virtually any data-related purpose. It supports human correspondence, electronic mail, “visit rooms”, sound and video transmission, and admittance to computerized data through numerous applications. The internet is a major component in modern society, and it has generated massive reorganizations within existing industries. There is no end in sight for its potential. Here’s a look at some of the ways it has changed our lives.
The web is the way people view information over the internet. The pages are written on web pages served by a web browser. Google, for example, handles more than 40,000 searches every second with its Chrome browser. Most websites, however, are rarely visited – only 0.1% of web traffic is directed to the top one percent of websites. As a result, the Internet has enabled new forms of social activity and association. The percentage of population using the Internet has reached 86 percent, or about a third of GDP per capita. The most common language for communication on the Internet is English. The first two layers of the web are the surface web, which contains pages that are indexed by the search engines like Google. The deep web, on the other hand, is the hidden layer of the internet.
Although women have been growing in number, men still dominate the online world. In two-thirds of countries, men dominate internet usage. The digital gender gap has narrowed in the past three years, but has expanded again in Africa. In the continent’s most remote regions, only 40% of women use the internet. In Africa, however, internet access is dominated by men. In other countries, like Sudan, 40% of the population is offline. For many rural areas, it is still impossible to make the most of the benefits of the internet.
In the United States, the Internet was started in 1969 as a project of the Advanced Research Project Agency, which was designed to facilitate the communication within the Department of Defense in case of war. Computers were installed at various universities that were involved in defense projects. Over time, the purpose of the network changed from military to scientific. It was then handed off to various organizations, and then the National Science Foundation (NSF) took over the responsibility for its administration. This process led to the development of the commercially funded Internet that millions use today.
The end of 3G networks isn’t too far away. According to TeleGeography, KPN will be shutting down its 3G network by the end of 2021. According to TeleGeography, Verizon will also shut down their 3G CDMA network in the UK by the end of 2021. Ultimately, the internet will no longer be available in some cities, including London. And even though these are just projections, the transition will take a long time to implement.
