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.