Internet

Benefits

In the past, it would take days and sometimes even months to receive a letter from someone else. Today, with the Internet, you can send an e-mail to anyone in the world and often have it delivered in less than a minute. Online forums are also places where people who share common interests can connect and talk about what they enjoy, or ask questions of other experts in the field

The Internet provides access to your bank account to view the balance, make transactions, and send money. Also, many services enable you to view and pay bills electronically. Online shopping is another huge advantage of the Internet, giving people the ability to find products of interest and buy them without having to visit a store.

The Internet also gives businesses the ability to advertise their product or service to everyone in the world or specify an exact demographic they want to reach. It can even make producing new products and services faster. An Internet connection provides many people with the ability to work from home or have a virtual office.

It gives everyone access to an endless supply of entertainment, with access to watch videos, watch movies, listen to music, and even play games online. The Internet helps make devices in your home connected and smarter by giving them access to the Internet. For example, the Nest thermostat can connects to the Internet to help control the heating and cooling in your home.

The Internet connects your computers and Internet-enabled devices to cloud services, like cloud computing and cloud storage. re. It makes backing up information easier, and safer — your data is securely stored in a professionally-maintained server.

Negative Impact

Because it's easier to be anonymous on the Internet, a person may bully others who are also online. With people sharing more information about themselves and their families on the Internet, it can be easier for stalkers to find personal information. Consequently, users can accidentally come across violent or pornographic images that they may not want to view. Computer hackers and malicious users can hack accounts and steal personal information that could be used for identity theft. The Internet also connects all computers, so hackers can scan millions of computers and quickly identify what computers are vulnerable to attack. Hidden places also exist on the Internet for criminals to conduct business without fear of being caught. Digital advertising can be sent on a massive scale, leading to more spam in inbox than junk mail in real life. Some people and even some governments take advantage of how easy it is to create content with low cost that spread lies or other fake news.

Nearly 85% of all emails are spam. Advertising makes up 36% of all world spam content. Adult-related content is the second-biggest spam category, accounting for roughly 31.7% of all spam messages. Identity theft rose 42 percent in 2020 compared to the year before. A 2021 LinkedIn data breach exposed the personal information of 700 million users or about 93 percent of all LinkedIn members. The average ransomware payment skyrocketed 518 percent in 2021 to $570,000.

Invention History

The internet was first developed in 1973 by Vinton Cerf backed by the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Its initial use was to provide a network of communication within research labs and universities within United States and expanded overtime. This invention (along with the World Wide Web) has been the foremost revolutionary invention of the 20th century. In 1996, more than 25 million computers were connected through the internet across 180 countries.

References

https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001808.htm

https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001810.htm

https://www.varonis.com/blog/cybersecurity-statistics

https://www.livescience.com/20727-internet-history.html