The Internet is a new revolution to all of mankind. People are using computers for tasks unimaginable ten years ago. This paper will share with you ideas on computer use and the Internet in the twenty-first century. The Internet, introduced to consumers in 1996, has grown immensely over the past four years. Other technologies took up to thirty-eight years to reach fifty million people. The Internet only took four years to reach well over fifty million users. The Internet’s extreme rate of growth will continue hile we have no idea where it will take us.
The Internet is becoming the most important tool to humans today. There are many different uses for every kind of person. For instance, online banking saves time and money over traditional banking. Small businesses have been rewriting the rules to commerce with the use of the Internet. Kendra Bonnett states: Just three years ago a study for Internet commerce estimated that thirty-seven million people in North America (age sixteen and older) had access to the Internet.
Among this group, twenty-four million reported that they have used the Internet during the last three months, and only seven percent have purchased products or services over the Internet. (An IBM guide to doing e- business, 2000, p. 9) The number of people involved with the Internet is what makes it such a success. The Internet will continue to grow while people find more uses for it every day. It is able to find information on any topic imagined at your greatest convenience. As the Internet keeps rowing, problems continue growing as well.
With the help of the Internet, people are distributing copyrighted data for a profit. This is data that should be sold in the retail market. Examples would be musical files, games, and applications. Stefan Ventroni (2000), an attorney for Hit Box Music, believes that the rights of creative artists are being trampled on because of the Internet (p. 1). Each album on compact disc can costs up to fifteen dollars purchased legally. These albums were downloaded for free ore than 1,000 times via the Internet.
All laws enforced in the real world still apply to the virtual world. We have to use responsibility when applying this new amazing tool to our lives. This will soon be realized as the two worlds slowly merge into one. In conclusion, the new technologies involving computers are opening doors unexplored and nobody knows where it will take us as a society. Author Nicholas Stein (2000) states, The Internet will effect our society in such dramatic ways that humans can not prepare or predict (p. 182).