The Internet ...

The internet has transformed communications to the extent that it is now the preferred medium of everyday communication. In almost everything that happens in the world today, we use the internet. The internet itself has been revolutionized, from its early beginning—which from a historical perspective are still relatively recent - a static network designed to transport small freights of bytes or  short messages between two terminals; it was a source of information where content was published and maintained only by expert coders. Presently, enormous amounts of information are uploaded and downloaded over this electronic giant and the content is owned by approximately three billion people; made up of commentators, publishers and creators.

 In the 1980s and 1990s, the internet widened in scope to encompass the information technological capabilities of universities and research centers, public entities, institutions, and private enterprises all over the world. The internet underwent immense growth and was no longer concerned with information exchange alone: it was a sophisticated multidisciplinary tool enabling individuals to create content, communicate with one another, and even escape reality.

The rise of the Internet has sparked a debate about how online communication affects social relationships. The internet removes geographic restraints and brings us together in topic-based communities that are not subject to location. The changes in social communication are of particular significance. Although analogue tools still have their place in some sectors, new technologies are continuing to gain ground every day, transforming communication practices and possibilities—particularly among younger people. The internet has removed all communication barriers. Online, the conventional constraints of space and time disappear and there is a wide range of communicative possibilities.

The development of the internet today is being shaped predominantly by instant, mobile communications. Comprehensive internet connectivity via smartphones and tablets is leading to an increasingly mobile reality: constraints no longer exist to any specific device, and everything can be placed in the cloud, the true essence of a cyber reality.