The Internet - A Liberating Invention

I've never really thought about the concept behind the internet. The first thing I remember is getting on "role playing" websites with my friends and creating alter-egos. We were around the age of 12. It was all innocent fun; we would invent a person, usually a super cool version of ourselves, and go on "dates" or out to "parties". My parents soon blocked these sites from our desktop computer.

 

The video we watched in class really opened my eyes to a relatively simple point: No one controls the internet. I guess I've always known that, but I've never really thought about it. It's really unbelievable to me that the government would release something that powerful into the world. The government must have been quite different back then, because these days they want to have a say in pretty much everything. I have an entirely new-found respect for President H.W. Bush. Way to go man.

 

 I also had no idea that the internet was created by the US Department of Defense for military communications purposes. It's kind of funny when you think about it: The whole world has benefited from something that was originally invented to keep Americans in our own little circle of communication.

I also found it funny that the internet was created decades ago for communication purposes, and nobody wanted anything to do with the idea. Phone company after phone company shot it down. These days it's hard to find a phone that doesn't offer internet. It sure didn't take long for those guys to hop on the band wagon.