Importance of the Internet

Growth:adventure. While waiting for the route-checker
According to Internet World Stats, the number ofweb site to load, she opens a web-site with
people using the Internet has increased from 16reviews by fellow travelers recommending the
million in 1995 to 1,734 million in September ofbest backpackers, warning of tourist traps, and
2009. That is an increase from 0.4% to 25.6% ofoffering advice on local customs. After printing out
the world's population in less than two decades.a number of maps, she checks her bank account,
These days, in developed countries like Northand leaves.
America, Sweden, Norway and the NetherlandsAnother patron of the Internet cafe smiles and
more than 70% of the population are activemoves to the computer she has just vacated. He
on-line.retrieves her bank account username and
Who and why:password which were recorded by some
It is difficult to find meaning in these numbers.key-capture software installed on the computer.
They tell us how many, but they don't tell us whoWhile he waits for the banking site to load, he
is using the Internet and what impact it has onchecks his own inbox to see if anyone has replied
their lives. Let's focus a bit more closely andto his persuasive e-mail offering a fair share of
consider some of these Internet users:the winnings of a national lottery if only they will
A young girl is preparing for her first jobsupply him with their contact details.
interview. She positions her laptop so that theHe composes yet another plausible story and
on-board video camera will show the least untidysends it to his e-mail list. The mail arrives in
part of her lounge and punches in the log-in detailsthousands of inboxes, including that of a young
for the video-conferencing facility. She sits downman struggling to keep his eyes open in the glow
and nervously rehearses the answers she mightof his computer screen. He should have finished
give to her interviewer, who is at his office in athis essay a week ago and now he is reduced to
different city.copying and pasting entire unread paragraphs
Her interviewer is quite busy. While he waits tofrom Wikipedia. He sighs, saves the document,
conduct yet another job interview, he is searchingand mails it off to his tutor who is also up late -
Google for any embarrassing photos or messagesbut for a different reason.
that the next hopeful candidate might have placedShe absently soothes her fretting baby while
on-line. What can he learn about her before thereading a blog post on her laptop screen. This is
interview even starts?her favourite blog, written by a young mother
At the office next door to him a man is writingwho describes the trials and tribulations of
and re-writing an e-mail. He is struggling with howparenthood in a most comfortingly amusing way.
to politely phrase yet another request for theShe pages to another window on her browser
long overdue research findings from colleagues allthat contains advice on how to cope with a
over the world, most of whom he has nevercolicky baby.
met. He does not look at the number of unreadNext door, her wheelchair-bound neighbour is also
messages in his in-box - he will have to spendon-line, finishing a report that he will e-mail in to
most of his day working his way through them, athe office the next day. He relishes hitting the
never ending task. He sends the mail -"send" button, the action symbolising the freedom
To a woman who is dreaming her day awayfrom having to depend on others to help him
under the florescent lights of her windowlesstravel the long and gruelling way to the building
cubicle. She has her web-browser open to a sitewhere his colleagues work. He realises he is
that offers live video footage from a camerahungry, and rolls his way to the kitchen to the
next to a river in Africa. Halfway across theunopened boxes of groceries he ordered on-line
world, she watches as an elephant relishes thethis morning.
cool riverbed mud. She sighs, closes the browserThis story could carry on for many pages and still
window and checks the Facebook status ofleave out many examples of the impact the
Her daughter, who is sitting in an Internet cafe inInternet has had on our lives. Just think about
Brazil, working out the best route to her nexthow it affects your life?