Introduction
A communication medium is a technology that allows the transfer of information faster and more efficiently. An example of early media is typography, which enabled quick book printing and quickened the information exchange in the form of typed text. Radio and TV are modern mediums that use radio waves to transmit encoded information. Radio receivers and televisions accept those waves and convert them into sound, in the case of radio, or moving pictures with sound, in the case of television. The most modern example of the communication medium is the Internet: using a set of interconnected local networks, it allows the transmission of information via computers and servers. It may easily replace television now, as videos may easily be broadcasted via the Internet, and there are many more of them than among the TV channels.
The Overview of the Internet
The Internet is the interconnection of various local networks between computers: a medium that can transfer information between them. Wi-Fi routers and Ethernet cables connect computers to the Internet, and large fiber optic cables connect various regions and countries, maintaining the network (Clark, 2018). The TCP/IP (transmission control protocol and Internet protocol), developed more than fifty years ago, is used as the single standard to exchange information. Based on these technologies, the modern Internet emerges as an extensive network of networks where terabytes of information are stored, transmitted, proceeded, and viewed daily.
The History of the Internet
Internet’s Predecessors: the 1950s – 1960s
The Internet predecessors were closed networks of supercomputers for research and military purposes, possessed by large countries, primarily by the U.S., from the beginning of the 1950s. In 1958, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was formed: a decentralized communication network used to increase the research speed and make communication between researchers safer (Kergel, 2020). The network’s primary purpose was military supremacy, based on better communication facilities that could work even in the conditions of nuclear war. Still, it was widely used in the 1960s by scientists and researchers for personal purposes, such as communication. The first tools for email exchange were designed in the 1960s, and the Internet of those times was limited by them.
Network’s Development: the 1970s – early 1990s
In the 1970s, the Internet started to become a mass product, although it was still only a tiny fraction of the world population that used it, mainly in the United States. This network medium differs from the TV by the transaction model: the TV is centralized, where one sender, such as the TV channel, transmits information to many receivers. Unlike this, on the Internet, everyone connected may simultaneously be the sender and receiver (Kergel, 2020). The TCP/IP was designed in those times, becoming a standard of the Internet still used in 2022 (Clark, 2018). Still, the TV remained the main source of information at that time: it showed detailed video-based information, while the Internet did not have enough capacity to transmit such information. Its bandwidth was only enough for emails and chats, the most significant part of the Internet in the 1970s – 1980s (Kergel, 2020). Therefore, in the 1970s – 1980s, the Internet was slightly more than a simple text-based communication tool. Newsletters, online forums, and chatrooms were formed in those times, but they were only text-based; typical Internet browsers started to emerge only in the 1990s.
The Modern Internet: late 1990s – the 2020s
The modern Internet started to emerge in the 1990s, as more and more people started to possess PCs with an Internet connection. The main driver of Internet development was commerce: as people started to make money using the Internet, various new services were created, money was invested, and the connection became cheaper and faster (Kergel, 2020). Internet browser programs were created in the 1990s, and from then, they became the main tools that enable Internet usage. Various Internet-based startups arose from the 1990s to the modern times, and some of them have become multi-million or even billion businesses, such as PayPal, a fintech service, or Facebook, a social network (Le & Suh, 2019). In the 2000s, the Internet bandwidth became wide enough to broadcast video and almost all other media, creating a wide possibility for content creation and sharing (Lotz et al., 2018). On platforms such as YouTube, everyone can upload their own video content and watch other people’s content; basically, it is an independent community-based TV. In that way, in the 2010s, the Internet emerged as an extensive network that unites people from almost all world countries and cultures.
To summarize the Internet history, it started in the 1950s as ARPA, a network for research and military purposes, and continues to grow as a tool for communication. In the 1960s – 1970s, the network was used for communication between scientists and students, and the first email services were designed. In those times, standard protocols for Internet communication were created, TCP/IP: they made Internet-based communication quicker and more convenient (Clark, 2018). In the 1990s, the mass spreading of the Internet began, stimulated by significant investments, new startups, and technologies. In the 2000s, the Internet started to be used worldwide, including in developing countries, and in 2022, 5 billion people use the Internet, of which 4.7 billion are active in social networks (Statista, 2022). The future of the Internet will be discussed later: its development presents even more enormous opportunities. Two prominent examples are the metaverse, the network of virtual realities, and the Internet of Things (IoT), the electronics that have Internet access.
The Influence of the Internet
Globalization: Politics and World Culture
The Internet’s influence is great: it plays a profound role in the growing world interconnection, uniting people from various countries and changing world politics. It has various consequences: positive ones, such as easier access to news, and negative ones, such as widespread Internet propaganda. From the beginning of the 1950s, the decentralized network model was intended to be used for political and military needs. Today, politicians widely use Internet services and social networks to reach their electorate and, sometimes, to spread their propaganda (Flew & Iosifidis, 2019). One of the consequences of Internet usage is the formation of the united world mass culture. As various cultures are interconnected in social networks, they influence each other and mix together (Turner, 2017). The Internet meme theory shows that information agents that one sees in the network may greatly impact their lives, as they are easily remembered and then reproduced by recalling to others, acting like mind viruses (Graham & Dutton, 2019). The Internet transforms politics and the world order, unites humanity, heavily increases the amount of information in society, and opens new possibilities for politicians and world organizations.
Startups and New Technologies
As mentioned, startups were one of the main factors stimulating Internet growth. As people invented tools and services to make the Internet more secure, faster, and functional, others invested their money in those inventions to earn more (Le & Suh, 2019). Thus, the Internet has become more exciting and convenient, and more people have started to use it, which creates more need for Internet-based startups and technologies, continuing the cycle. In this way, it is a powerful creativity booster that increases the innovation level. In addition, the Internet is good for marketing, as it allows connection with customers and provides tools for finding new ones (Cartwright et al., 2021). Companies drastically increase their success by creating good content on the Internet and increasing their presence on social media. Therefore, the Internet creates new ways of business and technology development, increases the rate of technological progress, and opens vast possibilities to improve people’s lives.
Social Influence
Every person on Earth with Internet access is interconnected with all others who have it. They can communicate using various social media, both for personal and business matters, as it is a robust tool for marketing, enabling access to many people (Cartwright et al., 2021). Social media is also used for education: they enable teachers to connect with their students outside the classroom, which is more convenient for both and is extremely useful in times of the COVID-19 pandemic (Greenhow et al., 2019). The usage of social media in the world is extremely high: more than half of the population uses it regularly, and the amount increases each year (Statista, 2022). In that way, the Internet profoundly influences everything happening in the world: globalization and politics, the development of new businesses and technologies, and the way people live. The current position of the Internet in the world will be analyzed in the next part of the essay.
The Current Relevance
Content and Communications
The Internet is the medium for a huge amount of graphic, video, and text content, stored on various servers. It continues to replace television: TV shows may be broadcasted using the Internet, which is more convenient, as one is not limited by channels proposed by the centralized TV service. Streaming platforms, such as Netflix and Disney+, have millions of subscribers worldwide who prefer them over television (Lotz et al., 2018). The Internet is often seen as a space of freedom: despite state regulation being present there, it is much harder for the government to control the decentralized network (Kergel, 2020). There are many ways to avoid this regulation and maintain anonymity in social networks and other Internet spaces.
The Internet allows communication with everyone, no matter how far away they are, if they have the Internet connection and the desire to communicate. Social networks are a large piece of the Internet, and almost all people who have an Internet connection use them for communication (Statista, 2022). Social networks and messengers, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram, along with content-sharing networks such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, have become an integral part of life for many people worldwide. While the possibility of communicating and finding any wanted content is positive, social networks may cause addiction and various mental issues (Elsayed, 2021). A large amount of controversial content, such as pornography, is also a problem; however, it may be solved by increasing the awareness of all Internet users from childhood (Kergel, 2020). Therefore, the Internet is a robust tool for content viewing, sharing, and communications: it opens wide possibilities to connect with the world but requires awareness to avoid addiction and sensitive content.
Online Shopping
Online shopping slowly replaces the traditional one, enabling one to buy things via Internet shops without physically leaving home. It introduces a new business model based on trust, as the customer cannot directly see the product, and the shop is responsible for its proper presentation and delivery (Izogo & Jayawardhena, 2018). The delivery is slightly more expensive than simple product storage, but it is worth, being much more convenient for customers. In addition, it allows businesses to pay less for the physical shop or even not have them at all. It is the case of Amazon, which uses the online shop delivery model only and earns billions of dollars on it (Greene, 2020). The enormous Internet influence on business development was already discussed; now, one can see how the Internet is used for purchase and sale purposes widely.
Web Services
Lastly, various web services are another essential component of the modern Internet: software positioned on the server and used by people and businesses for various purposes. Cloud computing is the widely used model for web services: the complexity of the web service is hidden behind the convenient interface that allows it (Birje et al., 2017). An example is cloud file storage systems, such as Google Drive, or online systems of reminders and notes, such as Evernote. Businesses use various analytics tools to quickly analyze large amounts of data and obtain competitive advantages. Those mentioned domains, content and communications, online shopping, and web services, are the most important current applications of the Internet, despite not being limited by them. However, they are enough to show that the Internet is relevant today for billions of people worldwide.
Future Possibilities: the 2020s and Beyond
While the Internet already takes an essential place in the world, its future possibilities are even larger. The Internet of Things is a large field of Internet development that explores the opportunity to make each thing, such as the refrigerator or microwave oven, Internet-connected. It opens a wide field of possibilities, based mostly on remote control and micromanaging: for example, a set of sensors that measures the pollution level and activates air filters when necessary (Kumar et al., 2019). IoT sensors may be used in healthcare to measure physiological parameters, such as temperature and sugar level, and show the information on the smartphone app. RFID chips may be used for identification as smart digital keys, preventing unauthorized access at home or the workplace (Chopra et al., 2019). Smart Home is a large field of IoT system applications for cleaning, energy control, comfort, and security: one may see those domains in Figure 1. IoT is useful in agriculture as it facilitates the maintenance of conditions necessary for plant growth. In that way, IoT provides many opportunities in various fields to improve people’s lives and make the world even more interconnected.
The metaverse is the interconnected network of virtual realities, much like the Internet is the network of computers; it may be considered the 3D extension of the Internet. It is often called the next-generation Internet, which will be not only the medium with pictures and text but with fully immersive 3D scenes in which the user may participate directly (Wang et al., 2022). Facebook, one of the largest IT companies in the world, changed its name to Meta and is dedicated to developing a high-quality metaverse based on its social network (Rodriguez, 2021). One may see that the metaverse may be the future of the Internet, as a computer will have more computing power and maintain immersive virtual realities.
Another direction of Internet development is the usage of various information technologies to make the Internet faster, more secure, and private. The protocol-independent Internet is an example of such a technology to make network browsing safer and less centralized (Alt et al., 2019). Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), often used in the context of the metaverse, are a blockchain-based solution to strengthen digital ownership by providing a unique blockchain key to the owner (Valeonti et al., 2021). Thus, there are three main future possibilities for Internet development: the IoT, the metaverse, and the development of the ways how the Internet works.
Conclusion
The Internet is a quite new invention, and it has been widely used only for several decades; still, its influence on the world is exceptionally large. It was developed in the 1950s as the network for scientists and military personnel, developed in the 1960s – 1980s as the communication media, and became a tool for mass use in the 1990s – 2000s. Internet development was primarily motivated by Internet startups and services that improved the Internet’s quality and motivated investors to invest money in it. Social networks are used extensively by more than half of the world population for communication and content sharing. Startups and businesses use the Internet for access to various services, contact with customers, and marketing, and often are entirely Internet-based. Politicians use it to contact their electorate and promote their political agendas. The future of the Internet is the development of the metaverse, a network of interconnected virtual reality, and IoT, a network of various Internet-connected tools, from refrigerators to cars. In addition, various tools, such as NFTs, are used to make the Internet safer and realize digital ownership rights, turning the Internet into a full-fledged virtual universe.
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