What is the Internet?
When asking someone what exactly the internet means to them their answers may vary — widely. What determines these responses depend on factors such as age, nationality, culture, and even gender or socioeconomic status. Even outside of these variables there are other contexts that contribute to someone's perception of the internet.
While most of my experience with computers as a young child in the early 2000s consisted of CD-ROM based computer games, I vividly remember the concept of dial-up internet, the distinctive sound that it would omit while connecting, and the fact that you could not make phone calls while it was in use. Another antiquated concept that I remember is the large wireless adapter cards needed to connect laptops to the internet without an ethernet cable. I also can’t forget about the AOL discs that would come in the mail every month or so.
It's safe to say that most of my experiences with the internet at an early age were limited to the physical objects surrounding me that were necessary to use it at the time, as opposed to actually using it. My personal experience with the internet did not really begin until elementary school when I began to use computers at school and at home to play flash games online.
While the internet is constantly evolving and consistently reinventing its necessity and practicality, I think that the biggest impact it has had in recent years relates to the pandemic and how people have been able to navigate school and work. Had this happened 100 years ago (it did), people would be unable to go to school or work while maintaining social distance. Now that we have the internet, both school and more so the workplace have gone through somewhat of a revolution, proving that work can be accomplished within an online environment and without a physical workspace.
