The Use Of the Internet

In the modern American society, the internet has become the epitome of social, political, and economic development. The use of internet has clearly indicated how the transformation of the society has taken place. This paper provides an analysis of the impact of the Internet on American society; how it evolved, and where it is today. Since its invention in the 1960s, the internet has become pervasive compared to the roles played by the Radio and Televisions. The internet has brought the society together in social, political, and economic spheres. However, the internet has come up with its shortcomings; these includes; moral decadence among the adolescents and unemployment where the internet has overtaken some of the tasks that were performed by individuals before.
Introduction
The use of the internet across the globe has become something of this age connecting almost all humankind. Among the American society, the development and usage of the internet have created a great revolution not only in computers but also in other means of communication like no other time there before. The invention of the internet among the Americans came after the invention of the radio, computers, and telephones, which set a stage for unprecedented connectivity to facilitate overall communication across the continent and globally (Goncalves, and Fernandez, pg 4).
The aim of this research paper, therefore, is to discuss the impact of the Internet on American society. This paper will include how and who invented the internet, and the target group.

This paper also covers how the society was, back in the 1990s, and the time before its invention, including the impact, it brought to social life. The paper also explores the positives and negatives on the use of internet including how society reacted to the use of internet and how much it has changed the society today and its prospects. Today the internet is everywhere in the world, and it has enhanced globalization and imperialism as the world is becoming more of a global village.
The early stages of internet
Compared to other technologies such as telephones, the radio, and television, a single person did not invent the internet, but an evolving process over the time. The internet first came into effect in the United States of America several decades ago and was used mainly as a secret government weapon to cold war (Baran pg 23). For many years since its invention, scientists and academicians used it to share information and communicate with one another.
To start with, its early development, the idea of the internet came because of early visionary people in America who found the importance of computers assisting in sharing the information on research, science, and military operations in the 1960s. In 1962, J.C.R Licklider first developed global networks of computers and later moved to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Later in the same year, Leonard Klein rock came up with a theory of packet switching which aim was to create a base of internet connections. In 1955, the first internet connection came into play by connecting the internet in California with another one in Massachusetts through telephone lines (Cerf and Kahn, pg 627).
This development in 1965, created a wide feasibility regarding networking but the only limitation was that there was the inadequacy of telephone lines, which could facilitate the whole process. Still in 1965, came the approval of packet switching theory, earlier developed by and afterward Robert came up with ARPANET (Roberts, pg 19). These are some of the visions, which led to the development of the internet, whereby the vast American society and the whole world enjoy today.
Use of the internet in the 1990s and how the reaction of the society
In the 1990s, use of internet among the American society was at a high pace even in the institutions of learning. In 1991, the University of Minnesota for example, had the first friendly user internet developed. The University had the idea to come up with a single menu system, which could facilitate accessing of files and information within the campus through their local networks.
During the early 1990s, the number of Americans who were living in different states communicated using computers. On the other hand, the internet was able to facilitate advertisements of different commodities where people could chat through online and purchase items such as computers, music CDs, and books.
According to the survey conducted by PEW research center, 45% of the Americans argue that the Internet has facilitated communication among the American people while 74% argued that they could receive messages right from their homes. Among those interviewed, 47% percent of them said that they could make purchases through the internet and interact with the company about the products.
Graph showing use of internet in the US from 1995 to 2014

(Source: PEW research centre pg. 15).
Positives and negatives towards networks through the years and 2016
In American society and the whole world, in general, use of internet has facilitated the social networking in all kind of activities at personal, business, education, and social level. The use of the internet is also effective in academic institutions where there is smooth sharing of information among teachers and students as well as it has facilitated online learning (Lia et al. pg 10).
Also, the use of internet has facilitated the smooth running of businesses especially in the area of marketing where companies invest highly on an online advertisement, selling of items and services. Companies, using the internet, connect to its potential customers through World Wide Web, emails, Face book, and Twitter.
It is good to note the use of Face book has facilitated social networking among the young Americans who mostly visits the sites daily and connect with various people and sites. The use of internet has made the virtual life more social than physical reality in both rural and urban living among the Americans.
On the other hand, development of the internet has its limitations. First, the use of Internet among the young adolescents has led to moral decadence by accessing sites that provoke immoral behavior such as pornography and terrorism. The Internet has also led to unemployment especially in the industries where some roles have been automated using the internet. The individuals who were previously carrying some of these roles out no longer offer these services. For example, it has led to the elimination of messengers’ role in most of the organizations among the American society. This is because the use of the internet performs the same duty from one organization to another efficiently and effectively.
How technology has changed along way with social life in 2016
Because most Americans are increasingly using the internet, marketers, government, as well as civil society organization re-migrated to the use of internet sites. First entrepreneurs in social networking are selling the spaces where people can actively enhance their lives. Many people, on the other hand, are avoiding zones that restrict free socializing autonomy in preference to friendlier zones that are less restricted.
For instance, the new freedom in the modern American society has affected how the internet has transformed the social-political practices. Both horizontal and vertical flow of information from the government horizons has changed the political and social landscape of the American people.
Also, the wireless communication has facilitated the social movements, hence creating a challenge to state power. The internet provides the technological infrastructure that enables people from different regions to understand their facts in the major field of research.
Improvement throughout the history because of internet
Improvement throughout the history of the internet has been to come up with high-speed connections. This is an implication of the future internet. Though in American society today the fastest speed is 56K, it is not enough to conduct multimedia such as sounds and videos. On the other hand, the growth of smaller devices such as mobile phones and tablets as well as E-books designed in a manner that they will be able to connect to the internet. However, the challenge has been with the web pages of the small devices not yet designed to adopt different sizes of devices.
Summary and Conclusion
Today internet has facilitated the wide broadcasting capability not only to the American society but also to the whole world. It has also become the medium of collaboration and integration without minding the geographical locations. In the American society, the most sustained investment in the development of information structure in the 21st Century is the internet. The internet use today is in all areas of development; research, academics, information technology, government functions, health among others. All these areas have been effective for decades through deploying this new technology.
In conclusion, development of the internet in the modern American society is a broad information infrastructure and history involving it comprises many aspects such as technology, organization, and community. The influence of internet has not only touched the technical field but has also led to the transformation of the whole society. The modern society of America is increasingly moving to the use of online tools to carry out commerce, community works, and information acquisition.
Work Cited
Goncalves, J.M., and Fernandes, F. “The impact of information security on Latin America.” 2009 International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions, (ICITST) (2009): n. pag. Web.Roberts, L. “Multiple Computer Networks and Intercomputer Communication”, ACM Gatlinburg Conf., October 1967.
Li, Jia, Ya Zhang, Ling Ma, and Xuan Liu. “The Impact of the Internet on Health Consultation Market Concentration: An Econometric Analysis of Secondary Data.” Journal of Medical Internet Research18.10 (2016): n. pag. Web.
P. Baran, “On Distributed Communications Networks”, IEEE Trans. Comm. Systems, March 1964.Cerf, V. G. and Kahn, R. E., “A protocol for packet network interconnection”, IEEE Trans. Comm. Tech., vol. COM-22, V 5, pp. 627-641, May 1974.