News and Media
The Internet, what would we do without it?
Friday 27 June 2003
The Internet only became an integral part of life and popular culture in the mid 90s. Ever since then, analysts, economists and every IT commentator under the sun, has been forecasting how technology will develop, the dot com bubble will burst, and how the Internet is a passing fad that will level off. The Internet has been attacked like a B-List celebrity in a lowbrow tabloid. However, the major anomaly in this comparison is that the Internet will not disappear into The Priory Clinic only to emerge after a few weeks with its tail between its legs. On the contrary, the Internet has instead muscled itself into every aspect of our lives, prompting commentators like myself to change the question from “What will the Internet do for us?” to “What would we do without it?”
"I don’t know what all the fuss is about; the Internet hasn’t really brought any benefits to my business or my life!"
Really, what about…
At Work
- Communication
E-mail, SMS, Video Conferencing, Online Meeting Rooms. Online Business applications - Managing Money, Managing Staff, Managing Customers and Managing Information. Saving time, Saving money and Saving administration. - 24 hr Information
Sending and Receiving documents, Business Development, Product Research, News Bulletins and Real Time Management Information. - Learning
External and Internal Online Learning. - Travel
Faster, Easier and Cheaper, what’s on offer, online brochures, long-range forecasts. - E-commerce
Products and Services displayed and explained. Online Payment and Market Research. - Recruitment – Advertising, Screening, Interviewing.
At Home
- Communicate
Friends and Family. - Information
News, Sport, Health. - Shopping
Groceries, Gifts (the list is endless) - Banking
Check your balance, transfer money and pay your bills. - Insurance
Car, House, Holiday. - Job Search
Research and Apply. - Booking Tickets / Tables
Concerts, Sports Events, Restaurants. - Forums
Special Interest Groups, Dating (Bringing people to together).
Without current advancement and Internet technology what would we be doing?
Without the current resource of the Internet we would be oblivious to global events until information had finally filtered through from correspondents and employees isolated in the field. Work processes would slow down, as material would need to be faxed or posted, companies with multi-branch locations would remain fragmented. We would spend an increasing proportion of our lives waiting for the phone to be answered or for an automated answering service to give us yet another option. International commerce and dealing with companies outside your own locality would be extremely difficult with geography, time and language all causing friction. We would be stuck in a colloquial economy with escalated prices and a lack of service diversity due to the shortage of competition and economies of scale.
Our personal lives would also be dramatically different. Not only would our knowledge base be narrower, so to would our circle of friends. Contact with old friends and those who we don’t see everyday would be limited, social circles would contract and with them the need for international travel. We would be less sophisticated, have lost touch with old friends and have a limited knowledge of current global events finding ourselves back in libraries wading through texts for answers to questions that we can now access with a few clicks.
Where will it take us?
The Internet has altered the way information is disseminated forever; Real Time information has become the norm. Whether it is the latest from the Dow Jones, the weather in Chile or revelations from the Big Brother house, the information is all available by virtue of the Internet. One of the major talking points among analysts and futurists is where these technologies take us and how much it will change our lives. Some argue that we have already seen the full potential of the Internet and that its effects on humanity can not be compared to the automobile, steam engine or electricity. However there are others who firmly believe that the Internet is a revolution that will change the century, and to date we have only seen a glimpse of its potential. They predict that the Internet will become an extension of our thoughts, each of us with an online alter ego (virtual assistant) with whom we will communicate wirelessly through a mobile device. We will be constantly online making simple voice commands to our buddy when we require information or a service, “book me a flight to New York”, “find me the latest research on genetic engineering”, “send my mother flowers on her birthday”.
If you're one of the millions who regularly use the Internet, you've probably seen your on-line time increase dramatically. What happens when everybody is on-line? When we are always “switched on”? When contact is constant? Governments, Multinationals, Religions and Communities old and new, of all shapes and sizes will all use the Internet as the main arena for activity. Like-minded individuals from all corners of the globe will form alliances and seek out a community to which they belong. Trainspotters from Kerry can gather and communicate with contemporaries in Perth and Uzbekistan. Marginalized groups and individuals who were once alone can now become substantial. However as with any amplification of opportunity there is a proportional growth of risk. Risks to security and privacy as illegal groups can also use the veil of the Internet to congregate online, with the right know-how information can be hacked from any location and individuals can create false identities and personalities in order to harass or commit a crime. The laws of the Internet are still evolving and new issues are arising all of the time as technology advances and innovations are made.
The Internet is here, that is fact! The benefits are obvious: there is personal choice and empowerment, unlimited information at the speed of light, and the breaking of boundaries of every kind in both our working and social lives. But the Internet also threatens to fragment society, isolate communities, depersonalise relationships, distort intimacy, erode privacy, and sacrifice reflection to an addiction to speed. The Internet provides us all with a power that requires responsibility, it is where this responsibility is ignored that the law must bridge the gap. I posed the question at the beginning of this article “What would we do without the Internet?” Any answer to this question is completely hypothetical as the invention is irreversible, Pandora’s Box has been opened. Perhaps a more provocative question to ask individuals, communities, companies and governments would be “What are we going to do about the Internet?”
The answer to that question is… The Future!