Give a hungry person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach that person how to use the internet, they get a way to feed themselves. This clearly gives an idea about the importance of internet in this age of globalization. The internet has answer to all our questions; it’s informative, useful and obviously fun to us. Internet has become an indispensable part of our day to day life. In the recent days, it is not only used in educational sector like few decades ago, but also in various other sectors such as entertainment, communication, business and many others. Because of its wide usage and usefulness, the use of internet has remarkably increased throughout the world.
The Internet
What is the internet? According to Oxford English Dictionary, the Internet is “a computer network consisting of or connecting a number of smaller networks, such as two or more local area networks connected by a shared communications protocol; specially such a network (called ARPAnet) operated by the U.S. Defense Department. In later use (usu. the Internet): the global computer network (which evolved out of ARPAnet) providing a variety of information and communication facilities to its users, and consisting of a loose confederation of interconnected networks which use standardized communication protocols; (also) the information available on this network.”
People started using the internet in 1993-94. When it first began, the internet was not commercial, rather it was only used for academic and research purposes. Then, software companies started to take a lead; because of easier availability, more people started using the internet and they used it more than they did before. As people were exposed to the uses of the internet, they realized its vast usefulness and gradually began using it for purposes such as recreation. Many countries in Northern America, Europe and Asia started to capitalize in the field of the internet. The internet was also advanced by installing fiber optic cables, high speed switches and wireless transmitters. (McBurney )
These days, the internet is used for many more purposes. According to the book NetActivism: How Citizens Use the Internet which is written by Edward Schwartz, “the different uses of internet by citizens are getting connected through electronic mail lists. The other uses of the internet are also for development purpose for their community, political purpose such as registration, voting and others.” (Schwartz)
The main objective of the internet is to facilitate people. According to the website Eastman Internet, the uses of the internet include email, information, services, buying and selling of products and communities. The full form of email is electronic mail. Before the introduction of internet and email, people used to depend on postal services, fax and telephone. The email is, without a doubt, superior in comparison to other modes of conveying messages. It’s reliable, fast and free as well. No matter where people are, if they have the access to the internet, they can conveniently communicate with others, provided the other person also has access to the internet. The information found on the internet is easier for people to access in comparison to other sources of information. Whether it is government policies, movies, or political conditions, internet has information about everything. Online banking, job seeking and application are a few of the services that the internet provides for people. People use the internet to buy and sell products as well. There are many social networking sites which are famous all over the world. Internet can be and has been extensively used in various ways.
As every coin has two sides, the internet not only has advantages, but also has few disadvantages. Few of the main disadvantages of Internet, according to Jayashree Pakhare are theft of personal information, spamming, virus threat and pornography. The basic information that people need to accomplish any transaction in the internet can be accessed by any person who has good internet skills. There are many unwanted emails that people get daily; it is called spamming. Besides spamming, Virus threats are something that erupts the functioning of the internet. As we all know, both spamming and virus threats are provoking and annoying. The fourth disadvantage of the internet is pornography. It affects everyone, especially the children. Hence, internet has advantages as well as disadvantages.
According to Matt Rosenberg, “A very frequent geographical question is "How many countries are there in the world?" Different numbers pop up when one inquires or reads about the number of countries in the world. Each source you use often yields a different answer. Ultimately, the best answer is that there are 195 countries in the world.” Among all the countries, few countries are developed; most are not, they are just developing. On these bases, we can distinguish the use of internet by the people living there.
The different uses of the internet
Medium of Communication
Communication is very important in this era of development. Communications are of different type. Some are formal such as business delegates exchanging their views and ideas and others are informal communication where a person is writing a simple mail to his friend or a family member.
Internet has become a prominent medium of communication. Rather than using postal services, people tend to use internet as it is reliable, convenient and fast as well. It just takes minutes or so to send a message through internet and other person gets it. The internet not only helps in these kinds of communication but other as well. There are different surveys in the internet that helps to draw conclusions in various topics. The internet helps not only in field of surveying process but also facilitates in feedback.
There is also a new means of communication where citizen can communicate to the government. That helps in bridging the gap between the government and citizens. It helps the people be a part of the change in the society. In these ways the internet has helped people facilitate communication. (Bimber)
Business
One of the aspects of a country which is greatly influenced by the internet is the Business sector. The perspective of business now and how it was perceived few decades ago and its situation now is completely different. Now, business has wider range than just the stereotypical thought where a person needs to be in office to fulfill his duties and responsibilities. The concept of the Home based internet business has attracted people towards earning staying home.
The commerce layer has increased 127% over the years. The internet businesses start with the websites. There are many types of companies providing various services to the customers or the people. The internet business not only provides services to the customers but also provides employment to the people. There are many service based sites. Few of them are telecommunication services, billing facilities and others. Nowadays due to competitive market people have started to provide optimum service at minimal cost. As a result of the business sites, the bills can be paid through internet. (Mahadevan)
For those people who have hectic schedule, the business that facilitates internet services saves a lot of time. They do not have to go to the concerned office to pay the bills. In that way they are not only saving time but also money by saving fuel. They can also devote that time in other productive work.
Sources of Information
The internet is the medium through with we can access many sources of the information. There are different types of information. Information not only means information related to education; the perimeter of information covers all the area of human curiosity. It might relate to news, education, celebrity gossips, health tips, historical monuments, and weather report or can be anything.
Internet has made the world a small place. Anything that happens in one corner of the world can be accessed by people from all over the world, if they have access to the internet. The sites like www.Google.com, www.msn.com, www.bing.com are few of the famous sites that provide information about anything and everything. The internet has answers to every question that a person has. A person only needs to type the key word and a click follows number of answers in form of various websites.
There is other information related to job vacancy, weather, foods, housing or anything that people can find in the internet.
Online Study and Classes
The education system has changed a lot since they have adopted the internet. The concept of distance study has only been possible due to the internet. Distance learning has gained attention of many people. It has helped lot of people get education and degree, which otherwise was inaccessible to them. People living in India can get education from an American university due to the introduction of the concept of distance education. (Sherry 337-365)
Other than distance education, people can get enrolled to online classes. There are many online quizzes and assignment that are done in ordinary classes as well. The internet not only facilitates students but also facilitate teachers in many ways. Teachers can find sources that can help them help the students’ grasp the subject matters in easier way. The internet has not only made the education field much easier, but it has also helped it in many ways.
Entertainment
Initially television or radio was the only sources of entertainment where people could watch movies or programs or listen to the songs. Theatre was the place where they could go to watch new movies. Now the whole concept of entertainment has changed.
Now people can watch their television shows through internet in their computers. Every channel has their own websites where they update the shows on regular basis. There are many websites were we can watch not only old movies but new as well. This has facilitated people to watch movies easily and it is cheaper than any other way. There are many websites such as www.ovguide.com, www.watch-movies-links.com and other which has all kind of movies that a person can watch.
The websites not only have movies but they also have music as well. A person no more needs a tape recorder to listen to his best song, they can listen it in many websites such as www.pandore.com, wwwimeem.com and so on which provides songs of their choice. The bands and music company have their own official music sites through which people can listen to their official songs.
Internet not only entertains people by the choices of the movies and the music it also provides latest gossip about celebrities, news about Hollywood, awareness shows which many people look up to. Hence, internet is one of the best sources entertainments.
Social Networking
There are many social networking sites that are gaining popularity day by day. The sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are famous among all the other networking sites. Due to these networking sites people can communicate much easily. It helps people of different ages communicate with each other. It not only helps to communication but it also educates people about different culture, traditions origins and others. (Barlet, Doz, Hedlund 46-62)
Miscellaneous Uses
Other than the uses mentioned above the internet has other various usages as well. few other usages of the internet are:
· Online advertisement
· Multiplayer gaming
· Online buying and selling of products
· Survey
· Long distance calling and so on
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the internet is an indispensable part of our life and our society. The internet has advantages as well as disadvantages. In spite of its disadvantages, internet is used in various fields and in many ways as possible. There are many uses of internet. It is used in many various fields such as business, education, entertainment and so on. Hence, it is very important in today’s world.
BILIOGRAPHY
"Advantages of Internet." Eastman Internet. 26 Jan 2009. Web. 10 Dec 2009.
Bimber, Bruce. The Internet and Citizen Communication With Government: Does the Medium Matter?. 16. Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group , 1999. Print.
"Internet, n." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 15 Dec. 2009
Mahadevan, B. "Business Models for Internet based E-Commerce An Anatomy." 2002. Indian Institute of Management, Web. 10 Dec 2009.
McBurney, Sally. "The Emergence of Internet." Santa Clara Valley Historical Association. Web. 10 Dec 2009.
Pakhare, Jayashree. "Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet."Buzzle.com (2007): n. pag. Web. 10 Dec 2009.
Rosenburg, Matt. "The number of Countries in the World."About.com: Geography. 31 Jul 2009. Web. 12 Dec 2009.
Schwartz, Edward. NetActivism: How Citizens Use the Internet. First. Morris Street: Songline Studios, 1996. Print.
Sherry, Lorraine.(1996). Issues in Distance Learning. International Journal of Educational Telecommunications, 1 (4), 337-365.
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