The Internet

Perhaps the most radical changes in American communications involve the wide-spread use of the Internet, a vast network of connected computers. The Internet was originally created by the U.S. government to enable research scientists to communicate with one another. The original experiment involved just four computers. The Internet began to expand in the 1980s when the National Science Foundation provided funding to involve more computers at more sites. During the 1990s, the Internet grew to connect computers all over the world. As more computers became available, the use of the In­ternet grew at a very rapid rate. In 1994, about 3 million people were using the Internet. By 1999, that number had grown to 200 million, mostly in the U.S. At the turn of the century, it was estimated that within 5 years, a billion people would communicate in cy­berspace (a name commonly used to mean the Internet).

To use the Internet, one must subscribe to an Internet service provider (ISP). By far the largest of these is America Online, which has a membership of more than 20 mil­lion. Most people connect to the Internet through their telephone line. A subscriber, using a computer and modem, dials a local telephone number and is connected to the ISP. From there, the user can connect to computers all over the world or communicate by e-mail with other Internet users. People who need faster Internet service can sub­scribe to a DSL (digital subscriber line), which uses copper wiring with special hardware and is more expensive. High-speed Internet connections are also available through cable from the same companies that furnish cable TV service. Even higher speeds are available to businesses over superfast telephone lines called T1 and T3.

One of the most popular features of the Internet is e-mail. E-mail provides a means of communicating with people all over the world almost immediately. To do so, the per­son sending the message types the recipient's e-mail address and a message into a computer program that looks like a form. The message is then sent over telephone lines to the ISP, which transmits it to the recipient, who can log on to his ISP and receive the message. In addition to text messages, graphics and computer programs can be sent by e-mail. About two-thirds of all e-mail comes from the U.S. It is estimated that the number of e-mail messages sent from the U.S. exceeds the number of letters delivered by the U.S. Postal Service (often called snail mail). Thanks to e-mail and the World Wide Web, people all over the world can receive news from anywhere else without censorship. Governments can no longer hide behind their propaganda. The truth is available to any­one with Internet access.

Another very popular and important feature of the Internet is the World Wide Web (WWW). It can connect a computer anywhere in the world with a vast number of other computers that contain a world of information (not all of it accurate, however). You can find the text of all of Shakespeare's plays and read them on your computer screen, download them to your computer's hard drive, or print them on your printer. Recently, the entire Encyclopedia Britannica was made available on the Web to anyone with a com­puter, a modem, and an ISP. Using the Web, one can look into the Library of Congress or find the opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court. The amount of information on the Web is enormous and growing daily. It is often referred to as the "Information Superhighway." It is estimated that, by the end of the twentieth century, there were more than I billion Web pages available to "Web surfers," most of them free.

To reach a Web site, it is necessary to know the address. For example, to reach the White House you would enter www.whitehouse.gov. This is pronounced "www dot whitehouse dot gov."

Probably the fastest-growing part of the Web is called e-commerce. Most retail businesses have Web sites where prospective customers browse among the company's mer­chandise, finding pictures and prices of the products available. To order something on the Web, a customer fills in an order form with his name, address, credit card informa­tion, and a list of the products to be purchased. The customer's account is charged, and the merchandise is delivered to his door. Many companies without retail stores have set up shop on the Web, and the number of such companies is growing rapidly. There are also companies that sell goods by auction (a sale where people offer to buy an item at a certain price, and the one making the highest bid gets to buy the product). Some Web sites search the Web and find their customers the best price for a particular product, for example, life insurance policies, airplane tickets, and home mortgages.

The importance of the Web to research cannot be overemphasized. President Clinton proposed that every classroom in America be equipped with Internet access and that every teacher be instructed in the use of the Internet. The amount of material available on the Web is much greater than any library's resources. All this information is also available in many foreign languages from sites around the world.

While computers have greatly expanded communications, computer usage has created a whole new language that must be learned. Some call it computerese. Online (being connected to a network), surf (searching through the World Wide Web), download and up­load (receiving and sending data from or to another computer), laptop (a portable com­puter), and mouse (a device for performing operations on the computer) are just a few of the new words (or new meanings of old words) used in computerland.

Check your comprehension.

What are three major activities that can be done on the Internet?