Essay/Term paper: Internet inventions

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Information Technology

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.