COM Tech Timeline

Technology Over Time

Over the past 27 years, hundreds of millions of people have used the World Wide Web. It has become very easy to do a variety of menial tasks online using the Web, such as shopping for clothes, ordering food, or applying for jobs. The fact that doing these tasks now takes only a few clicks of a button is astounding as well as convenient and amazing. None of these tasks that were once viewed as complicated and are now simple could be done online without the invention of the World Wide Web.

The World Wide Web was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee during his time at CERN Laboratories in Switzerland. He noticed that the methods of sharing information between different departments were very complex and often not used, as it was easier to talk about it over their coffee break. To combat this, he presented "Information Management: A Proposal" for the program that would become the Web. It was rejected at first in 1989, but eventually his boss gave him permission to work on it in the summer of 1990. Berners-Lee wrote three programs that would remain staples in the World Wide Web: HTML, HTTP, and URL: the three languages that allowed people to search on the Web to find a specific address for information. This technology proved to be very useful, and in April of 1993 the World Wide Web was released to the public with no charge to use its services.


Pictured: Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Sir Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, to develop open web standards for the world. The community has proposed five concepts of the Web that are used globally: Decentralization, Non-Discrimination, Bottom-up Design, Universality, and Consensus. These five concepts are key to the World Wide Web, as it allows its users to use the Web however they want as long as they respect what is put on the web. The concept of a free World Wide Web is something that should be maintained, and Sir Lee has been campaigning for this ever since he opened it to the public. The Web should remain public and accessible, or communication and the right to free speech would be impaired greatly.

Sources: 
The Web Foundation
A Brief History

Communication

Methods of communication have advanced greatly over the last couple hundred years. Even over the past 100 years technology and communication has exponentially advanced and become much easier. We have come from waiting months for a letter to make it across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris to sending a text message in mere seconds asking "wanna get dinner 2nite?" Methods of communication that send messages in seconds are extremely useful for a variety of reasons, such as creating plans with friends, contacting loved ones across the world, or sharing photos of your experiences.

However, this convenience comes with a cost. The quick nature of communication has created a shortened attention span in the population, as people are expecting an instantaneous response to a text message or a missed call. People are so easily connected to their friends across the world that it seems that connecting with our friends from across the table has become difficult. The world is simultaneously connected and disconnected, as one would rather send a text to a friend in California and FaceTime them for hours than meet up with your friend in your dorm to study for your next exam.

In short, people need to find a balance between physical, face-to-face contact and long range, electronic contact. If it is easier to send a text to meet up for dinner, go ahead and do that, and once you meet up with your friend, talk to them instead of sending texts to your other friends. Nowadays, people have become so used to text messages that it is now an odd action to talk on the phone, which is in fact what the cell phone's primary use is. By looking down at our phones we are missing the people behind the text messages. The movie "Ready Player One" showed this problem very well, as people would rather live in the fictional world than the real one since they are someone else that they don't want to be in the fictional world. However, the real world is all we have, so we have to live in it and talk to the people who also live in it in order to get the most out of life.

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