The Internet: A Class Of Its Own

In our society there are many inventions and technologies that make our lives faster and easier. The Internet stands out from all the rest. It is a blend of everything right at your hands for your use and personal gratification. The Internet has come a long way from when it first began, but today can do practically anything you need to do right from your seat at home. You have access to television, radio, the news/other relevant information, video, messaging and email, video games, office programs and so much more.
It was not always this easy to operate the Internet until about fourteen years ago. The Internet was based on commands and key terms just to be able to navigate and get whatever you were looking for. In nineteen ninety four, the creation of the World Wide Web (WWW) turned the world around. This was "a hyper-textual, multimedia interface to the Internet (Adams & Clark)." You may ask yourself what that exactly means; now everything was possible with a click of a mouse. You can type in which website you wanted to go to and it will take you there. You are also allowed to look back and forth between multiple sites. You can practically find anything you want, but you should be careful because you always want a dependable source. Hypertext markup language (HTML) along with the WWW makes browsing the Internet an easier task. With HTML you can click on a photo or a text that will lead you to another source or website related the same topic you are interested in, streaming you into more information and depth on your interest. With the technology becoming even easier, it is that much more simple for you to create a website yourself if you desire. The Internet is the "Information Superhighway" and the World Wide Web is what gets you on it.
But, not only are you able to receive information like other sources you are able to interact. The Internet is very interactive, and many people can communicate through websites and programs like America Online (AOL), Instant Messaging (AIM), and Electronic Mail (E-Mail). Many if not most of us use these programs to communicate between one another; send each other pictures, messages or anything else. If you read an article on the Internet you can post feedback and post your opinion along with the opinions of others. People can have personal profiles on websites such as MySpace or face book where they can socialize with people they know or meet new people. People can also go on dating websites to meet their special other. The Internet is a source to not only interact with others but present yourself. Even writing "blogs" such as these, people can communicate back and forth if they have something in common or express themselves to why they disagree with a certain point. Today it is even possible to have a conversation through audio and video with someone on the other side of the country or even the planet. This can give conversations between people a clearer understanding since Emails and AOL do not have body language or non verbal cues (Adams & Clark). Businesses can hold conferences through the Internet with a company on the other side of the map. The Internet has made a breakthrough in personal communication with people around the world, you are not only able to speak to someone in an instant but you can see them as well.
Search engines are also a handy tool that makes the Internet easier to browse. You do not even need to know the website you are looking for, you can type a keyword in the search box and find endless amounts of articles related to your search. You may not only find what you were looking for but more. Search engines such as Yahoo or Google have made "surfing" the Internet so much easier than before. You can receive websites, images, videos and more just off the search off of one word. Unlike television or the radio you are not only able to receive information but you are able to get more in depth with whatever your interests are, you can research your interests. Once again, with HTML links in websites you are connected to many other sources for that same topic. You can even find books and do your work without going to the library; it is crazy to think how much information is in your grasp. Everyone can be connected to so much media and information than ever before as long as they know how to find it.
All of these characteristics make the Internet easier to function and communicate with each other, but speed plays a role in the Internet process as well. Being able to receive data, websites, pictures, videos etc. has become faster now than ever before. With the speeds available today with the use of cable and DSL, you can download videos, music, texts and so much more in the matter of seconds and a few minutes. Your message from your home sent to family in another country can be received in less than a minute. It is astounding how quick everything can go from one point to another. We can have faster than-synchronous communication, because we are able to download or retrieve information much faster than we can ever view or read the material itself (Adams & Clark). Packet Switching is how’s these messages can travel so quickly. The formulaic message attached to each packet is telling where the packet to go. Not only making the process faster but more reliable as well. "It knows where it is going, and it can find any route among hundreds of possibilities to get there...you cannot really block it because it since the system is designed to work around blocks automatically (Adams & Clark)." If the address is wrong and does not exist the mail comes back to you just like a letter would if the address was wrong on an envelope.
Today we live in a digital world. Analog has been used for a long time prior but the switch has been made, even the recording of music has moved to the digital process as well as the Internet. When running through a digital process everything is much more compact and you are able to store more because files are encoded through binary codes (Adams & Clark). Like a CD that is scratched, the whole CD can be affected by this one glitch. The digital process is not affected by wear and tear. Instead of going to the sore and buying music you can download a song or even an album even quicker through the Internet. The MP3 format in music has made it possible to put over 100 songs on the same CD because all the files are highly compressed. This destroys the old barriers of having 84 minutes of music on a CD. These compressed files are made easy to send and even easier and quicker to receive. "A website can have video, audio text, graphics and any other digital content all connected and blended together (Adams & Clark)." With rapid rate of growth of the Internet, all of this digital content is made easier to control, receive and send. Although corrupt files may ruin a file or a few of them, it is far easier to retrieve it again than the worry of ever losing it.