By Ramona Sipos
Table of contents
Introduction 3
How the Internet has changed our lives 3
What do we use the Internet for? 4
Safety on the Internet 5
Conclusion 7
References 8
Introduction
I am going to do a project about the Internet and I am going to look at different aspects of it. I will look at how it started, who started it, how it affects our lives, the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet and the enormous amounts of information that we can get from it.
How the Internet has changed our lives?
The Internet is a connection of computers all over the world which can share information as long as they are connected to the Internet. The connection is made through a router, wireless or fibre cable. Since 1989 when Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web, (which is NOT a synonym of Internet) people started to use the Internet in everyday life but I will talk about this later on. We can use the Internet without the World Wide Web but we can’t use the World Wide Web without the Internet. The World Wide Web, often called the “Web, is a way of accessing information over the Internet. To get this information we need a computer (connected to Internet), a browser, for example, Internet explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, Google Chrome or any other and a website address.
Since its invention our lives have changed completely and I will give you a few examples of how we used to do things before and how we do them now.
Shopping online
Since we have the Internet shopping is much easier for several reasons:
Saves us time. We used to spend hours looking for the right items on the shelves and trying to get the best deal. Now we can check the sales on each website, comparing the prices for the same item and getting the best deal.
Saves us energy. We used to travel all the the way to shops to buy what we need, now we can do it from our homes, sitting comfortably on our sofas, getting the items delivered at our door at a certain time suitable for us.
Paying our bills. Now it is easier than ever to pay the bills. No more hassle going to every company and queuing to pay the bill; no more hassle to give your meter reading .It is so easy to do it now through the Internet and it takes just a few minutes.
What do we use the Internet for?
We use the internet for many everyday things from buying a loaf of bread to booking a holiday. All of this can be done from the comfort of our home. Although there are many advantages of using the Internet, there are also disadvantages.
Here are a few ways that people use the internet.
Email E-mail is an online correspondence system. With e-mail you can send and receive instant electronic messages, which work like writing letters. Your messages are delivered instantly to people anywhere in the world. Email is now an essential communication tool in business. It is also excellent for keeping in touch with family and friends. Before, we used to use letters which would take days to deliver. The advantages to email are that it is free when compared to a telephone, fax or postal services. However, you can get viruses on your computer, lots of unwanted emails called spam or junk email or phishing email (this is explained later in safety on the Internet).
Information
Any kind of information on any topic is available on the Internet. There is a huge amount of information available for just about every subject known to man, such as government law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information, new ideas, recipes and many others. However not all of the information is true and correct. We have to be careful because wrong information can be dangerous.
Services
Many services are now provided on the Internet such as online banking, metre reading for gas and electricity bills and booking a doctor’s appointment. For example you can transfer money in a few seconds from home rather than going