The creation of the World Wide Web (1989)
and web browsers (early 1990s) gave ordinary people easy ways of getting around the Internet. Over the past fifteen years, millions of different websites have been set up, giving people the chance to shop, do business, play, learn and communicate online. Over the same period it has become much easier, cheaper and faster to get online in order to do these things. Now more than 30% of the global population have access to the Internet. Continent-wise, this breaks down as: Europe: 58.3%, North America 78.3%, Latin America 36.2%, Africa 11.4%, Asia 23.8% and Oceania 60.1%. These figures are growing all the time, as technology designed to access the Internet becomes both more mobile and much cheaper to produce.
The arrival of the Internet has vastly changed the way in which people search and access information.
News travels more quickly than ever, and current
affairs can be discussed all over the world
instantaneously via forums, blogs, and social
networks. Search engines like Google and Wikipedia
have now become ubiquitous starting points for
researching anything from minor queries to
academic reports. Many people also maintain social
links through the Internet with services such like
Facebook, Skype, and Flickr, to name but a few.
Research in the UK has shown that the average adult
spends around 22 hours 15 minutes online each
month.
Some believe the Internet is dominating the lives of its users. Has the internet done more harm than good in the society? Please house your opinion matters and no insult please