Internet Inventions Essay, Research Paper

Internet Inventions

Several inventions have changed the way people communicate with each other.

From the old fashioned telegraph to today’s modern electronic forms of

communicating, people have beencreating easier ways to correspond. Electronic

communication, such as e-mail and other internet offerings, have created a

cheap and incredibly fast communications system which is gaining steady

popularity.

E-mail is basically information, usually in letter form,addressed to a

destination on the internet. The internet is aninternational web of

interconnected networks–in essence,  anetwork of networks; these consist of

government, education, and business networks. Software on these networks

between the source and destination networks “read” the addresses on packets and

forward them toward their destinations. E-mail is a very fast and efficient

way of sending information to any internet location. Once an e-mail is sent, it

arrives at its destination almost instantly. This provides people with a way

to communicate with people anywhere in the world quickly without the costs of

other forms of communicating such as telephone calls or postage for letters.

The savings to be gained from e-mail were enough of an inducement for many

businesses to invest heavily in equipment and network connections in the early

1990s. The employees of a large corporation may send hundreds of thousands of

pieces of E-mail over the Internet every month, thereby cutting back on postal

and telephone costs. It is not uncommon to find internet providers from twenty

to thirty dollars a month for unlimited access to internet features. Many

online services such as America Online and Prodigy offer e-mail software and

internet connections which work in an almost identical way, however, the cost

is more expensive.

The World Wide Web (WWW) and USENET Newsgroups are amongother internet offerings

which have changed the way people communicate with each other. The WWW can be

compared to a electronic bulletin board where information consisting o

fanything can be posted. One can create visual pages consisting of text and

graphics which become viewable to anyone with WWW access. Anything from

advertisements to providing people with information and services can be found

on the WWW. File transfers between networks can also be accomplished on the WWW

though Gopher and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites. Newsgroups are very

similar, but run in a different way. Newsgroups basically create a forum where

people can discuss a vast array of subjects. There are thousands of newsgroups

available. Once one finds a subject that interests them, they may post notes

which are visible to anyone visiting that particular newsgroup, and others may

respond to such notes. Again, this can be advertising, information, or, more

commonly, gossip.

Though the internet can be a convenient way of communication, it can become

problematic. Networks can shut down resulting in lost e-mail and WWW sites and

newsgroups to be down for an amount of time. Another problem is the addicting

factorassociated with most online services. One can become attached toan online

service as they are thrilled they can meet people al lover the world. Much

spare time can be used e-mailing and surfing the net creating a lack of real

human interaction for such an individual. Though this may not be a big concern

for most people, it is considered more healthy to be active rather than sitting

in front of a computer for hours a day. Also, the need for variety can cause

one to subscribe to many providers with varying costs, creating large monthly

bills.

Though the lack of human interaction may seem like aproblem, technology is

continuing to create new ways to morefully interact with people on the internet.

New inventions suchas the I-Phone and miniature video cameras are further

changingthe way we communicate with each other. Now, with the I-Phone,one can

actually talk with people over the internet with thetelephone without normal

long distance calling charges. Also,with the new video cameras which can be

connected to the computer, people can actually see who they are talking

to,regardless of location. No longer are people confining themselves to a room

typing information to one another; they’re interacting with more progression.

Electronic communication is proving to be the way of the future. The affordable

and sufficient system of exchanginginformation is still gaining popularity and

people, as well asbusinesses, utilizing its many services.