“HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE…”
INSTANTANEOUS COMMUNICATION & WORLD-WIDE CONNECTIONS
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| This is a three-dimensional image of the routes of the internet. It was created by Barrett Lyon, whose royalty-free endeavor is called The Opte Project. Credit: Image is courtesy of Barrett Lyon. |
Although portable cell phones and computers have been around for the last several decades, it is only in the last ten years that they have become a much more valuable everyday tool. With wireless connection, these devices can be used for email, connect to the internet, telephone anywhere around the world, have video face-to-face telephone calls, find out exactly where you are, do your banking, pay your bills, check the weather, check what movies are playing in town (and how they were reviewed), take pictures or videos, find maps to route you, read major newspapers, look things up on an on-line encyclopedia or dictionary, keep in touch by instant messaging (such as “twittering”), plan and organize social movements and protests, download and play music, keep your daily calendar, check the stock market, etc. etc. Such versatility in a pocket-sized device would have been unheard of just a few years ago.
Such miniaturized devices have included such products as the Blackberry, the IPhone, the IPad, the Kindle Fire among many others. Such instant communication is even being credited with the ability for rapid deployment and organization of social and political demonstrations and movements, such as the 2011 political uprising in Egypt. Such small devices potentially hold tremendous power for individuals and even whole societies and will likely play an important role in shaping our future world.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
Because you ARE connected. The question is, do you want to disconnect? This is your world, and we are all getting more and more deeply immersed, gradually, into this probing, connecting, and networked world.
WEB RESOURCES
This is a computer animated documentary about the History of the Internet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hIQjrMHTv4
This is an interactive website from the Computer History Museum. It provides a history of the internet including timelines and exhibitions.
https://www.computerhistory.org/internet_history/
This is a Wikipedia article about the internet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
This is an animated video, in the style of Monty Python, about A Brief History of the Internet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbMHY8I_kQ8&feature=related
This is a good informational website about The World Wide Web History Project.
https://1997.webhistory.org/home.html
