What is the Internet? Definition and origin. Your terms and fun facts

It is the largest source of information, accessible to anyone who visits it from anywhere in the world.

The immediacy of the Internet, and the vast amount of services that it is capable of offering you, over the years has made it an essential ally when it comes to doing daily tasks.

And it has taken him a fairly short time to get to that place.

What are you going to find here: What is the Internet, the history of the Internet, types of Internet connections, how long is the Internet and much more info!

Let’s see the reason for this. And how it all began and evolved to where we are today. 

internet history

As mentioned, what makes the Internet so different from other human inventions is the insignificant period of time it took to be used by millions of people.

• Electricity (1873), for example, reached 50 million users after 46 years from its implementation.
• The telephone (1876) took 35 years to reach this same mark.
• The automobile (1886), 55 years.
• The radio (1906), 22 years old.
• Television (1926), 26 years old.
• The microwave oven (1953), 30 years.
• The microcomputer (1975), 16 years.
• The mobile phone (1983), 13 years.
• Internet (1995), for its part, took only 4 years to reach 50 million users in the world!

On October 24, 1995, the US Federal Networking Council  unanimously approved a resolution defining the term Internet . This definition was created in consultation with members of the Internet and intellectual property rights communities and reads as follows:

• “Internet refers to the global information system that is logically connected by a single global address based on the Internet Protocol (IP) or subsequent extensions.”
• “It is capable of supporting communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) or subsequent extensions and/or other compatible protocols to IP.”
• “Provides, uses or makes accessible, both publicly and privately, higher-level services produced on the described infrastructure.”

Today we live in a reality of fragments of knowledge. Individuals control the actions of parts and not of the whole.

Knowledge is not the same as information.

Knowledge, and the value built daily when we focus on it, is equal to the analysis and action on information.

During the cold war, more precisely in 1969, the Pentagon, together with a company called ARPA (Advanced Research and Projects Agency) started an important project.

This would allow connecting military bases and research departments of the American government.

This communication network was called the  ARPANET .

ARPANET was fully funded by the US government with the goal of being a communication network immune to any Russian attack . For this reason it was built using a Backbone that passed below the ground.

Starting in 1970 some universities and even institutions that were connected to the defense department already received permission to connect to the network.

At the end of the decade, with the expansion of the network,  ARPA resolved to transfer responsibility for maintaining and expanding the Backbone to the NSF . This occurred immediately after the switch to a new communication protocol to support the new demand.

It was here then  that TCP/IP  (Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) replaced NCP (Network Control Protocol).

The first access providers emerged in 1980,  allowing companies and citizens to visit the network through dial-ups.

In 1990 the NSF began to lose control of the network because some companies began to create their own structures. This was to escape from the previously established model.

With what happened, all the restrictions on the commercial use of the network were canceled and the Internet no longer had a person in charge.

From the beginning,  Internet access was restricted to the use of some friendly applications  such as Ghoper, WAIS, BBS, among others. This was until the rise of the World Wide Web and browsers with multimedia content.

After the emergence of these friendlier softwares, the  Internet began to be used by an increasing number of people . Around the year 2000, broadband emerged, promising high-speed browsing and downloading.

This new phase of the Internet contributed to the increase in the volume of interested people.

Today the Internet is a very efficient means of communication , and whoever is not connected is disconnected from the world.

Currently, companies increase their sales using tools hosted on the Internet such as Web-marketing. Some of them already invest thinking that the Internet today is a market that is increasingly expanding.

In schools, students carry out research  on the great network to do their jobs. And it is also used as a substitute for face-to-face classes, as in the case of the recent Coronavirus pandemic.

In companies, communication is already done through email, telephone networks using Vo-IP technology (Voice over IP), and apps such as WhatsApp or Telegram.

The birth of the Internet

As we mentioned, the Internet was born in 1969 , in the United States. It originally interconnected research laboratories and was called  ARPAnet (ARPA: Advanced Research Projects Agency). 

Internet in its beginnings was a network of the North American Department of Defense.  It was the height of the Cold War, and scientists wanted a network that would continue to stand up in the event of a bombardment.

Then the central concept of the Internet emerged:  it is a global network in which all access points are equal. So if B goes down, A and C continue so they can communicate.

The name Internet proper came about later. This was when ARPAnet technology came to be used to connect universities and laboratories , first in the United States and later in other countries.

Therefore, there is no single center that “governs” the Internet. Today it is a set of more than 40 thousand networks in the whole world.

What these interconnected networks have in common is a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP),  which allows them to communicate with each other.

This protocol is the common language of the computers that make up the Internet.

Taking these factors into account, the Internet can be defined as: 

• A community of people who use and develop those networks
• A collection of resources that can be reached through these networks

For two decades,  the Internet was restricted to the academic and scientific environment . In 1987 for the first time it was released for commercial use in the United States.

One of the highlights in the origin of the Internet occurs in 1992, when the network began to be fashionable. Several  companies providing Internet access began to appear in the US .

Hundreds of thousands of people began to obtain information from the Internet, which became a worldwide craze.

The World Wide Web

The Web was born in 1991 at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland. Its creator, Tim Berners-Lee, designed it only as a language that would serve to integrate computers in the laboratory and other research institutions.

In addition, it could be able to display scientific documents in a simple and easy way for everyone to access.

The Web grew fast.  In 93 it was already common in universities for students to make “pages” with personal information.

What determined its growth was the creation of a  program called Mosaic,  which allowed access to the Web in a graphic environment, such as Windows. Before Mosaic it was only possible to display text on the Web.

Today it is the segment of the Internet that is growing the most .

The old network interface is practically only used by universities and research institutes, and even then, increasingly giving way to the Web.

 The key to the success of the  World Wide Web  is hypertext. The texts and images are linked through keywords, making navigation simple and pleasant.

The “old” Internet, before the Web,  required the user to want to learn Unix commands. This is quite a complicated environment to face, since it was an unfriendly environment, only text

Arguably, the Web did for the Internet what Windows did for the personal computer.

Now you will see all this World Wide Web explained a little more technically .

Web addresses always start with “http://”. It should be noted that http stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol or hypertext transfer protocol.

Its most common format is similar to the following: “https://www.google.com.ar”, where:

• http://  What does Hypertext Transfer Protocol mean?
• www:  (World Wide Web) is the convention that indicates that the address belongs to the Web (it is not mandatory)
• google:  name of the company or institution that manages the site
• com:  indicates that it is commercial
• ar:  indicates that the address is from Argentina

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) 

It is the protocol used for the transfer and exchange of files. Whenever a file is sent or received from a computer on the Internet to your PC, this protocol is being used.

Many browser programs, such as Edge, Chrome, or Firefox, have this capability built in, and you won’t need any other software to download your files.

However, you can find an incredible variety of  FTP programs and files available on the Internet .

There are  free software ,  FileZilla being  one of the best in the market. Many of them shareware or freeware. There are also paid programs, of course, with other advantages or features.

But the important thing is that you can download all of them and try them on your computer in the easiest way!

The creators of the Internet

Every invention is born from an idea which is modified and perfected over the years. It was what happened with the plane, the television, the personal computer and logically with the Internet. Therefore, choosing a “father” in these cases is somewhat unfair.

As a result of this, it is possible to make a  list of the people who most helped to forge the World Wide Web , the popular WWW of our virtual culture.

From this point, you will meet the people who collaborated the most for the existence of the network as you know it today:

Tim Berners-Lee 

Known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. Physicist Berners-Lee and his team  built the world’s first Web browser,  WorldWideWeb. Also the first web server and the HyperText Markup Language, better known as HTML.

Berners-Lee founded and is the current director of the  World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) , a standards body that oversees the development of the web as a whole.

Brian Behlendorf 

He was the main developer of the Apache Web Server and one of the founding members of the Apache group. While working as the webmaster for the Wired Magazine website, I  was making changes and fixes to the HTTP server.

This had initially been developed at the NCSA at the University of Illinois.

After noticing others adding their own patches to that server, he took it upon himself to put together a list of email addresses to coordinate all of these improvement efforts.

By February 1995, the project had a name, Apache, and the entire original NCSA server code base was rewritten and optimized.

This made it possible to build an extensible language, making it easy for ISPs to add their own extensions or plugins to optimize the server. This made it possible to host hundreds of websites on a single server computer.

It should be noted that Apache continues to be the most popular web server on the Internet.

Rasmus Lerdorf, Zeev Suraski, and Andi Gutmans

Lerdorf, Gutmans and Suraski are responsible for what you know as the PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) language. This is a script language, which continues to be one of the most used on the Internet to create dynamic pages.

Rasmus Lerdorf first created PHP in 1995, and was the main developer of the project for its first two versions.

In 1997, Gutmans and Suraski decided to extend PHP, creating what is known as PHP 3.  Both rewrote the core of PHP, later developing the fourth generation of the language.

Marc Andreessen

Co-author of Mosaic,  the first  widely used web browser, and founder of Netscape Communications.

Although Mosaic was not the first graphical browser, it  was the first to stand out and a pioneer in displaying text with embedded images.

Mosaic gave birth to Netscape Navigator, which was hugely successful, helping to bring the web to users. In 1998, Netscape released the source code for Netscape Communicator under an open source license.

That project, known as Mozilla,  became the basis for what you know today as Firefox,  one of the most widely used browsers in the world.

jonathan gay

He was a co-founder of FutureWave Software and for over a decade, the lead programmer and visionary behind Flash. Although today Flash has almost disappeared, it is necessary to keep in mind the importance that Flash had in recent years for the web.

Gay wrote a vector drawing program called SmartSketch, which ran on the Penpoint operating system, which was later discontinued.

SmartSketch’s technology was repurposed into a tool that could create an animation and play it on web pages.

This product, FutureSplash Animator, was acquired by Macromedia in 1996 and renamed Flash. Following the purchase,  Gay became Vice President of Engineering at Macromedia and led the Flash engineering team.

Over the years, his team wrote new things for Flash, like Actionscript.

Perhaps the greatest achievement, however, was creating what was then known as Flash Communication Server,  which allowed the use of the RTMP protocol to stream audio and video over the web .

In essence, this technology was central to the creation of YouTube.

Brendan Eich

Creator of Javascript, he now holds the position of CEO of Brave Software. Eich created JavaScript first under the name Mocha , then LiveScript, and finally as Javascript which made its debut in December 1995.

Javascript quickly became one of the most popular programming languages ​​on the web , initially used as a visual application. Over time the language grew.

Internet Basics

What is the Internet?

We could say that  the Internet is made up of a large number of computers  that can exchange information with each other .

It is a large global network where computers can communicate because they are linked through connections of various kinds.

Of course this is thanks to the fact that a common language or protocol is used.

What is a website?

Within the network of computers that is the Internet, some of them serve as “hosting”, since they store text, graphics, video and audio. That is, everything you can see or hear through your computer connected to the network.

The computers that contain this information are called servers . In turn, websites contain web pages that are like each of the rooms in a house.

These rooms, the Web pages, are interconnected and have a certain order. You can enter a site in different ways, but it is recommended that you enter through the main door.

In terms of the Internet, you will access through the so-called home page of a website.

What is a link?

A  link  or link is the  name used to designate those words that appear highlighted, usually in blue, in the text of a web page.

These links or links have the peculiarity of being able to take you to another page or site when you click on them with the right mouse button.

These links serve multiple purposes. They can take you to another site or page, as we mentioned, but they also allow you to download things and access images in larger sizes , among others.

What does it means www?

WWW is an acronym that means in English World Wide Web, that is, the world wide web. It is made up of all the computers connected to the Internet  and works with a system known as client-server.

Thus, the servers, that is, the computers that store the websites,  are like a library of books. When you access it and ask for a book, they lend it to you in the same way as on the Internet, a server lends the client the information he asks for.

The difference is that the servers are libraries that can have text, images, audio or video, and where you can request services and purchase products.

What is a domain?

A domain is the  address created to reach a web page . For example, if you compare a website with a house in a big city, the domain would be its address, that is, street and number.

We could even go further if there is an apartment building at the address. Floor and apartment number could also be indicated.

How does it work and who controls the Internet?

Internet is an invention that Jules Verne would never have imagined.

It is the opportunity for  millions of people around the world to access the Internet at any time and from anywhere to find knowledge and knowledge.

A space for work, for leisure, capable of uniting people scattered across five continents.

The Internet  is undoubtedly the technological innovation that has made the world that “global village” that experts speak of. Today, moreover,  access to the Internet  is one more component of freedom of communication and expression.

In this sense, in European nations it is protected by the Charter of Rights of Man and Citizen.

Since its inception in the 1990s, the Internet has grown to become what it is today: an integral part of your everyday life.

It is difficult to imagine that the Internet is a chaotic conglomerate of computers communicating with each other without any control or regulation.

In order for an Internet user living in Kuala Lumpur to be able to browse the website of the Swiss National Library without any problem, some kind of link must be produced.

How does the Internet work?

Is there an Internet “directory” somewhere,  a regulatory body that makes all the decisions?

What does exist is an international controversy regarding  Internet dominance . This is an indictment of the European Union against the growing power that a country that is not difficult to guess has over the network: the United States.

Can the size of the Internet be measured?

Is it possible to know the size of the Internet? Is it possible to use some existing mechanism to measure its size?

The truth is that when you start using the Internet you immediately realize the power and omnipresence that the great network of networks currently possesses.

But it is also true that being able to measure the size of the Internet is a somewhat complicated task.

However, the concern generated in many of us to know with approximate certainty  the size of the Internet , makes us evaluate different aspects.

In short, because the Internet could be measured under different parameters and not only take one aspect to compare a single index.

When talking about the size of the Internet and you are curious about how big the Internet is , the answers can be oriented towards different aspects.

These include the number of people using the network of networks, the number of websites on the Internet , and the number of servers operating on it. You must also count the total number of bytes of data included in the Internet and the level of traffic, among other parameters.

You can start from any of these aspects to try to measure the size of the Internet , but the truth is that the answer you will get in each case may differ from another.

For this reason, addressing the size of the Internet becomes really complex.

In addition to this, you must not forget that the characteristics of the Internet are constantly changing and expanding, so the task of measuring the Internet becomes almost an impossible mission.

However, experts often carry out studies to  determine the growth of the Internet in a given period . To do this, they generally use  the number of people in the world who use the network of networks as a parameter .

Keep in mind that the higher the demand, the higher the supply. In short, the more people in the world who use the Internet, the more websites there will be. Then, the higher the data transmission rate and the level of traffic.

And to keep things moving quickly to meet that expanding demand, more servers will be needed. and associated hardware will be required.

If you look at the graph below, you can see the  enormous growth that the use of the Internet has had in the world . Constantly growing!

This allows you to realize that the number of Internet users has grown exponentially in a decade. As a consequence,  the size of the Internet under other parameters has also grown remarkably.

Therefore, if the size of the Internet is based on the number of bytes of information it contains as a parameter, it can be deduced that it has grown significantly.

According to official information released by Wikipedia, in 2015 the approximate weight of the Internet was 8 zettabytes, while in 2018 it exceeded 10 zettabytes.

Already in the second decade of the 21st century this figure was widely exceeded. It is expected that in the coming years, the size of the Internet will double, mainly due to the growth of streaming services and the cloud.

This is without counting all the traffic generated by virtual reality, databases or Internet searches, which occupy a good part of the traffic.

Now, to get an idea of ​​the  equivalent of a zettabyte , you have to keep in mind that  1 bit is the minimum unit of storage and that 8 bits are the equivalent of 1 byte .

After that, the table continues as shown in the following table:

Another alternative that you can use to try to measure the size of the Internet is to know the approximate number of websites that exist on the Internet.

Of course, knowing these statistics up-to-date is a very complex issue, because the truth is that new websites are created every minute all over the world.

However, knowing some figures, especially the  significant increase in the number of websites , allows you to get an idea of ​​the enormous size of the Internet.

In this sense, you should bear in mind that  the first website was created by the Englishman Tim Berners-Lee in 1991 . After that, the explosion of pages that began to emerge around the Internet would gradually arrive.

By 1998, the year Google was launched , there were around 2.4 million websites on the Internet. Between 2003 and 2004, the year of the appearance of Facebook and YouTube, the existence of more than 50 million websites was already registered.

Just ten years later, there was such a huge buzz around website creation that  by 2013 there were an estimated 850 million new sites created .

It was the following year when the figure of one billion existing websites was surpassed . It is estimated that in 2019 the number of sites had risen to more than 1,700 million.

You can also try to measure the size of the Internet through the number of servers that exist. Perhaps this data provides less information to be able to analyze the great size of the Internet.

Although it is true that  in every country in the world there are a large number of computers and servers  that allow you to enjoy what the Internet offers you every day.

Another of the metrics that can be taken into account to assess the size of the Internet focuses on  estimates of the traffic that occurs on the network of networks .

In this sense, taking into account all the Internet data traffic, you can see important changes. For example, the figure in recent years has grown exponentially in relation to the number of petabytes per month reported by world traffic.

It should be noted that in 1991, when the first websites began to appear,  it was estimated that the daily traffic generated by the Internet was 100 GB .

To visualize the growth, just keep in mind that in 2017 that figure increased to more than 12,000 petabytes , exceeding 20,000 petabytes in 2020.

In addition, experts estimate that  by 2022 the global traffic of Internet users could well exceed 30,000 petabytes per month.

As you have seen so far,  determining the size of the Internet is really complicated . Although one of these parameters can be taken as the basis for the calculation, the truth is that the result would not be totally reliable.

This is due to the fact that other data of great importance would remain in order to correctly establish the size of the Internet .

At the same time, you have to keep in mind that Internet growth occurs minute by minute, so the figure that can be estimated would be outdated in less than a day.

Internet: A long history of strategies

To unravel the mysteries of the Internet, you must study its technical workings. Among the multitude of technologies used on the Internet, which ones are really fundamental?

Once these are identified, it is easier to understand who is behind, who dominates.

Internet is not a coincidence, but rather the result of the work of researchers and computer scientists whose objective was, initially, the interconnection of computers. And to be honest, this is a US military achievement.

The desire for  research computers to communicate with each other has been a necessity since the 1960s.

The investigations in this sense were initiated by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), an American agency. Translated into Spanish, it would be the “Advanced Research Service of the Department of Defense”.

The research areas were also heavily influenced by military purposes. In the initial development, the possibility of developing a communication system capable of maintaining itself even in the event of a nuclear attack was included.

The DARPA project led to the creation of a decentralized network, called the ARPANET.

Little by little,  the universities were included in the project, participating in the development of this great computer network.

Still under the direction of DARPA, this fledgling Internet was gradually managed by the National Science Foundation (NSF),  a US government agency dedicated to supporting scientific research, beginning in 1977.

But links with the US military administration remained very strong. Although the NSF helped develop the network, its day-to-day management was in the hands of the Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) , a DARPA service.

As the use of the Internet spread, connecting more and more civilian networks,  the US military decided, in 1983, to separate to create MILNET , its own network.

In order to deal with the development of the civil Internet, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) took over. This is a government agency under the Department of Commerce.

With the emergence of more standards-setting agencies and commercial web-based service companies, a sharp edge soon became apparent. The Internet could not be under the leadership of a single government.

This is why in 1998 the Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was created.

It is a private company, under California law, which has taken over the role of the NTIA, performing an absolutely fundamental function. In this sense,  ICANN decides everything related to the allocation of domain names throughout the world.

Internet and IPs: A history of names

If you think about it for a second, the Internet boils down to a mode of communication between computers on a network. This is not an easy task, there must be a precise language, it must be ensured that all teams understand it and other technical details.

Of course,  in order for computers to communicate, they must first be able to identify themselves. And this is the essence of the Internet: every computer must have an IP address. This is a unique identifier, which takes the form of a series of four numbers separated by dots.

What is required is that the addresses are truly unique. It is impossible to connect to a site with a web browser if the IP address forwards to dozens of computers anywhere in the world.

Therefore, it is important not to assign IP addresses in any way!

For this reason, it is ICANN that first of all determines what IP address ranges are available in the world and who has the right to use them.

At the local level, it is the organizations called RIR (Regional Internet Register)  that distribute the IP addresses that ICANN has assigned to them. There are five RIRs in the world.

However, the numerical IP address, which is vital for computers to recognize each other, is not very practical for users.

That is why there are also text addresses, which are the ones you use every day, such as www.google.com.ar, or www.smn.gov.ar (the Argentine National Meteorological Service), for example.

Each address exposes all the necessary information to know which country it belongs to. You can know this by watching the last segment. In this case it is called an extension.

For example:

• “.ar” means that the site is from Argentina
• “br” means that the site is from Brazil
• “.gov” is a government site
• “.com” is a commercial site.

It is a practical decision, but for this to work, it is necessary to translate to the computers, in each connection, the IP address.

For this, the domain name servers (Domain Name System or DNS) intervene: When you write any address in a Web browser, such as www.hotmail.com for example, a first request is made to the domain name server.

This indicates the servers that can provide a response for the .com domain.

One of those servers will determine which other server is capable of pointing to the hotmail.com zone.  And this last server will be able to provide the complete IP address of the searched site.

This query sequence is performed on each visit to the site.

The servers capable of performing the first step, that is, directing towards the servers that manage the so-called top-level domains (.com, .org, .ar) are called DNS root servers.

Of these there are only thirteen in the world.

DNS Root Servers: Thirteen Vital Servers

It should be noted that each of these servers has many “mirrors”, and sometimes they are not even hosted in one place.

In total, these thirteen servers, absolutely vital to the functioning of the Internet , are distributed throughout the world in almost 170 cities.

And although they are supervised every day by private companies, universities or the government,  ICANN delegations always intervene, who, ultimately, make all the decisions.

There are a large number of organizations involved in Internet regulation and standard setting.

Some examples of them are:

• W3C Internet Society (ISOC)
• Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

But ultimately, the operation of the Internet depends mainly on ICANN, which in turn depends on the US Department of Commerce. This agency is the one who appoints all its members.

The political consequences are real. It is known that in 2005 the new domain “.xxx” was going to be implemented for use . This would make it easier to identify sites with adult content.

ICANN initially gave its consent. But two days after the final signing of the founding act, ICANN changed its decision and blocked the creation of the new domain.

What happened?  The US Department of Commerce ,  pressured by requests from US conservative organizations, gave the denial for the creation of this new .xxx domain.

Other facts,  such as the conditions for the creation of delegations  for the management of domain names. The problems with the domains “.Iq” for Iraq, and “.Ai” for Afghanistan, show a stranglehold on US Internet policy.

Internet: Politics and Global Decisions

Imagine a scenario of a conflict between countries. The United States, through its control of ICANN and its technical partner, VeriSign , is the only nation that could cut an entire country off the Internet. This could happen through the abrupt cut off of its extension.

The European Commission demanded at the time,  more transparency and multilateral responsibility in Internet governance.

But the facts do not seem to have heard the claim. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the attitude of the United States has changed. This country was about to gradually withdraw to allow the Internet to be run by the private sector, but they gave up.

On September 30, 2009, the contract linking ICANN with the US government ended. The transition to the hands of a non-profit organization finally took place in 2016.

However, it seems that nothing has changed.

At this point we must keep in mind that the Internet continues to be of enormous strategic importance to the United States . And you can’t afford to let go of your control.

Glossary of Internet Terms

Internet

The word Internet is the contraction of Internetworking of networks (network of networks). The Internet, which is often called the Network by many,  is a set of interlinked computer networks on a planetary scale.

With the help of browser programs, you can communicate with other users and exchange information. The web is only a subset of that great Network, as are emails, forums, chat and all other services, including the cloud.

IP adress

Code attributed to computers connected to the Internet, which uses the TCP/IP protocol. It works like a phone line number. The IP address makes it possible to distinguish one computer from another.

This address is made up of a series of four numbers between 0 and 255, separated by periods, such as: 111.22.33.44.

Domain NameServer

This computer, called domain name server, has the role of ensuring the correspondence of addresses of the type www.hotmail.com with an IP address, in order to correctly route the messages sent.

Extension

Abbreviation  found at the end of electronic addresses  and indicating the nature of the site or the country of origin.

Types of Internet connections

Today connecting to the Internet is a really simple task. What’s more, in some cases it is not even necessary to do it manually, since your devices will do it automatically when necessary.

In this sense, many years have passed since the early days of the Internet when you had to be an expert to connect to it. Fortunately, the advancement in the types of Internet connections has improved a lot.

Nowadays it is practically not necessary to do anything to be connected to the Internet.

In the case of Wi-Fi wireless networks, you will only need an available network, a username and a password, which will be remembered for the next time you connect to that same network.

In other words, if you reconnect to that network it will be automatically , without entering any data.

In the case of ADSL Internet connections , you only have to connect the corresponding cable to your PC and you will be connected. It’s so easy to connect to the Internet now!

Only the most experienced will remember the Dial-Up connections and its characteristic remote access sound.

From there it went on to other technologies, such as cellular Internet, with its 3G, 4G and 5G connections for mobile phones, Wi-Max connections, Internet via satellite or fiber optics. But there are many other types of Internet connection more.

If you want to know more about this fascinating topic, check out this post: The types of internet connections

What is the Internet of things?

In the last century there were brilliant authors of science fiction novels like Arthur Clarke or Isaac Asimov.

These outlined in their stories a futuristic world where technology and computing would be the banner of human progress. This was done in pursuit of improving the lifestyle of the people who inhabit the planet.

However, many considered that all this was simply a great fantasy, impossible to come true.

But the truth is that these men with their genius also knew how to be visionaries and even prophets. In reality, their writings were not so far from the achievements that would be reached in the new century in the field of technology  applied to all possible fields.

In short, in the last two decades the field of technology and computing have evolved by leaps and bounds.

This enormous advance allowed the improvement of fields such as medicine, agriculture, space research and others with new technology.

They have also allowed the common man to have a large battery of artifacts that give him the possibility of going further in all areas of his life.

Such is the case of the rage that has been generated in recent years with portable devices. These, along with the expansion of the Internet have given rise to a new conception in the lives of men.

As you know, today you can even develop your professional work life from anywhere and at any time, thanks to accessibility.

Of course, this has been only one step in the evolution of computing and technology,  and in a way it has served to prepare a much broader and deeper ground.

That is why the next step here is what has been called the “Internet of things”.

Now,  what is the Internet of Things?  In principle you should know that its acronym  “IoT” derives from the concept  “Internet of Things”.

In general terms, it consists of the interconnection of billions of devices,  including from the smallest of the final nodes to a Cloud Computing storage platform.

These are intelligently interconnected through the Internet, managing to operate through servers, offering the end user a series of connected platforms and associated Internet services.

Therefore, the word  “interconnectivity”  is key in this matter!

Devices that can be part of the Internet of Things  range from tiny sensors and security cameras to huge production machines.

Even today, drugs have begun to be marketed whose packaging has incorporated  a wireless chip that connects through the Internet.

This chip provides the patient with a service that allows him to receive alerts to remind him to take his treatment pill.

Do not be surprised then when you hear that according to global statistics,  it is estimated that by the year 2022 there will be more than 14 billion connected devices. That is to say a good part of the world population.

In this way, in a certain way, the world will change before the next decade,  since it is expected that all the inhabitants of the planet will be connected. This will obviously greatly affect all areas of life.

But even more so in everything related to the business world , since companies must adapt to the new ways of proceeding of consumers. This is already happening, on a small scale, but you can see some of this technology at work in something as simple as home automation .

How is this achieved?

Basically the Internet of things is built on the basis of computing and data collection sensor networks in the Cloud.

Thanks to this, the connection with the Internet of things becomes not only mobile, virtual, and instantaneous, but also omnipresent.

But in addition, this goes much further, since it is not simply about the communication that can be established between two devices.

Specifically, when the Internet of Things platform is mentioned,  it aims to create truly intelligent devices and machines, for which sensors play a fundamental role here.

The first thing to keep in mind is that a sensor is not a machine, since its functionality is different.

A sensor measures, evaluates and collects data.  This is precisely where the  Internet of Things comes into play,  since its main objective is to create connectivity between sensors and machines or devices.

In this sense, the real value of the Internet of things lies precisely in two facts:

• First: Create the confluence between the data collection made by the sensors
• Second: The subsequent use of all that information through machines or devices.

All this of course happens in real time, so the Cloud Computing platform also comes into play.

In this regard, it is important to underline that  the Internet of things would not work in the absence of cloud-based applications.

The Cloud is the place where the data supplied by the sensors is collected, where the collected information is interpreted and from where said data is sent to its final destination. In this case machines and devices.

As a clear example of its worldwide application, we could cite various cases of air accidents.

It is known that these could have been avoided if each of these planes had had intelligent components,  sensors and microchips.

This is so since these mechanisms would have been able to collect the necessary data to determine faults before each of these planes took off.

Another clear example of this is the construction of bridges using smart cement , that is, it includes sensors to control the state of the structure.

Thanks to this type of intelligent cement, it is possible to know exactly and at the precise moment when a breakdown occurs in the structure. In this way it is possible to fix problems before they cause a catastrophe.

Of course, this technology is not only limited to this type of scale, but also to the daily life of all human beings.

An example of this would be being able to take advantage of the data collected by the intelligent concrete of a route. This information could be sent to the Cloud to be available to any user’s devices.

With this, a user could know in real time, through his GPS or smartphone, if the road he wants to cross is passable.

Over the years, and the advancement of this technology, the sensors that are incorporated into this smart concrete will be able to transmit relevant information directly to your devices.

In this way, if there is any danger on your way, a device will ask you to slow down, and if you don’t, it will be the vehicle itself that will slow down.

These are just a few examples of what could be achieved in the future with what is now known as the Internet of Things. The information has a direct impact on daily events and your decisions,  with clear benefits.

If you want to know more about the Internet of things, you can consult this article: Meaning of IOT: What is the Internet of Things

And the truth is that the usefulness that the Internet of things will provide in the immediate future is not as simple as it seems.

Beyond the examples we have mentioned, it will be a real change from everything we know today.

Of course it will change not only the way you see everything around you, but it will also change on a very broad level the development of your own life.

Therefore,  without a doubt, the Internet of things is the most important, largest and transcendental technological development that is taking place today.

In this framework, it is not surprising that large companies such as Google have been working for some time on the creation of their own systems based on the Internet of things.

There is no doubt that the Internet of Things will offer you many advantages. But of course, at the same time, companies will know how to take advantage of it for their own benefit, and many of course to your detriment.

For all this, we will have to wait and see…

Internet and social networks

One of the most popular services in recent years within the world of the Internet are undoubtedly social networks. Their fury is directly related to the fact that they are free platforms , very easy to use.

They also provide the possibility that the content is generated by the user. This means that anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can use social networks to create their own content and publish it.

Did you know that there are rules of online behavior, which ensure that communication between users of social networks is as respectful as possible? Read  what Netiquette is  and you will be surprised.

All social networks allow users to spread their ideas and opinions, share their projects and show their work.

That is why the vast majority of social networks have the peculiarity of being interactive services.

This important feature makes social networks  one of the proposals on the Internet that has managed to monopolize the largest number of users  in recent years.

The emergence of social networks can be established  in 1994, when the Geocities service appeared on the Internet . This is one of the first platforms to offer the user the possibility of communicating with nearby people.

However, for most,  the birth of social networks came in 1997 with the Six Degrees platform . This network offered the possibility of establishing contact between users from different parts of the world in a very similar way to how you can do it in current communities.

Today social networks have spread beyond what was imagined, so you can find the most varied communities. Currently the most popular are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, among others .

At the same time you can find  specialized social networks in different niches, such as LinkedIn , dedicated to labor and professional issues of its users.

In all cases, social networks offer users the possibility of having a profile, uploading and sharing photos and videos, posting ideas, comments and opinions .

They even allow you to communicate your state of mind to the world, but above all,  they provide the possibility of contacting friends  and family . It is also an area in which to make new friends.

Of course, for this,  one of the main characteristics of social networks lies in the fact that they are fully accessible to everyone in the world.

This beyond their political and religious ideologies, their socioeconomic situation, their language or their idiosyncrasies.

In short, social networks have not only known how to be a true standard in the exponential growth of the Internet.

In addition, they have managed to materialize in reality  the idea expressed by the philosopher Humberto Eco about the great village .

In other words, in recent years social networks can be considered  the main element for globalization .

Internet addiction

It was only in the second half of the 90s  that Internet addiction began to be talked about,  and since then studies on this subject began to multiply.

However, there is still no consensus on the definition of this new form of dependent behavior. Generally, the alterations related to addictions deal with the use of chemical substances or others.

It can only be considered that  the use of the Internet is pathological  when the excessive consumption of time in these activities generates obvious personal damage. Be it on an individual and/or professional level.

This excessive use of the Internet has the following symptoms:

• be worried about the internet
• The need to spend more and more time online  to achieve satisfaction
• Inability to control, reduce or stop the use of the Internet
• Go online to run away from problems or to relieve a state of anxiety , such as depression or discomfort
• Risking the loss of a significant relationship , whether personal, professional, or educational
• Lying to the people with whom you live about the time you are connected

It is difficult to define exactly what are the causes of this dependence on the Internet. 

Some studies consider that it  is the very nature of the Internet that makes it prone to dependency. Others also argue that it is not the Internet itself that causes dependency, although applications with interactive features are.

Certainly it will not be possible to attribute the development of dependence to only one cause.

The impact on behavior caused by the Internet  is probably due to the combination of several of its characteristics, such as:

• ease of access
• The diversity of content
• The low cost
• Visual stimulation, autonomy
• anonymity and interactivity

Of course, all these variables must be added to the user’s personality, that is, to his psychology.

If you want to know more about Internet dependence and devices, check out this article: Nomophobia: Cell Phone Slaves

This text is not intended to  discourage the use of the Internet,  only to recommend moderate and conscious use of it. The Internet is a tool for work and leisure that has become indispensable these days.

However, it is important to understand that this tool must be used in such a way that its use does not negatively affect your life in its different aspects.

The key to avoiding Internet addiction is essentially moderate use.