Now, it is no secret that the World Wide Web has grown over time since the introduction to society. Actually, to be numerically correct WWW has grown by an astounding 2300 percent in the 1990s alone. Image the growth in percentage today. To give you an idea though, recent studies show that the average person now spends almost ten hours a day online..let us also keep in mind the average person sleeps eight hours a day.
We’re all guilty of falling into the deep hole of the World Wide Web..at least I know I am. Another thing that I’ve been guilty of since like yesterday, was believing the internet & the world wide web was the exact same thing…YIKES!
In simplest terms, the Internet is a network of computer networks, linked together by copper wires, fiber optic cables and wireless connections. These connections let the Internet deliver packets of information between computers on the network. Whereas the Web is a ‘virtual’ space of information. The Web only works because the Internet allows computers on the network to communicate with each other.
Throughout time we have known the internet to be ideal for online shopping, watching super cute cat videos when bored, or maybe even to stalk an ex on Facebook that you broke up with over two months ago…YIKES!
But we’ve all seen those pesky ads that randomly pop up during the video of the at playing with a baby monkey. You know the ad, the ad that ‘coincidently’ aligns with your most recent search of yellow Hunter boots and then you see advertisements of rain boots on sale literally every corner you turn on the computer screen. Yeaaa, you know the ad.
This is because Big Brother Is Watching You. This phrase refers to the government’s surveillance of the people with listening devices and cameras, in a totalitarian society, where Big Brother is the head of the totalitarian regime. Everyone in this society is under surveillance by the authorities, which reminds people of an endless catchphrase “Big Brother is watching You,” showing a dictator’s mindset of a Big Brother. Generally, the idea conveys a line of propaganda, meaning citizens have to follow what a dictatorial government wants them to do, and if they do not, Big Brother will know, as it spies on them all the time. The idea comes from George Orwell. He coined this phrase in the third paragraph of the first chapter of his novel “1984.” He writes, “It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU…” Later it appears on posters and television ads as a political slogan.
We’ve all had the thought in our head that there was a possibility that something suspect was going on behind the screen, yet we don’t allow this stop to prevent users from still using the internet. In the summer of 2014, the number of Internet users worldwide had reached
3 billion…So what will the future internet look like? Will the number of users progress or digress? Is the future internet?
Well, no one can truly project the future. But in the words of the great Alan Kay, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
Just as everything else in life, too much of anything isn’t always a good thing. The internet hasn’t been around as long as it may seem. The internet hasn’t publicly been around for even 50 years and yet has a huge impact on the way individuals interact, work, and overall do just about anything in their daily lives.
I honestly couldn’t imagine a life with the Internet or the World Wide Web and operating without the two. It’s scary how reliant we are on it being so early in the existence of it. And I’m interested to see how things will be moving forward. But moving forward we must all keep in mind the cons of the internet and everything it entails. How it may seem to assist us through things and maybe even ‘protect” us from whatever, it’s beyond me, we must also proceed with caution. Too much of anything isn’t always a good thing.
Nyah Speaking. 