Apparently, today is the Internet’s 40th birthday! According to Wikipedia:
After much work, the first two nodes of what would become the ARPANET were interconnected between UCLA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and SRI International (SRI) in Menlo Park, California, on October 29, 1969. The ARPANET was one of the “eve” networks of today’s Internet.
I wrote about my first experience of being “online” using the Internet. Specifically, I was using it as a talk box to chat1 with someone in Italy. Then I used it for email and reading USENET articles.
It’s the most important medium for my daily life. My professional life is about maintaining Internet websites, serving e-Commerce and informational contents. I also maintain personal blogs to document my life. The Internet is also part of my social life, via Facebook and Twitter. Finally, it’s obviously the source of information with innovators like Google and Wikipedia.
However, who would’ve thought, after all of these years, the Internet has become a legitimate addiction? I admit that I have a mild addiction.2
It’s hard to separate myself from the Internet because it’s intertwined with my daily life. I now watch TV online via Hulu or Netflix. I listen to music online via Pandora or Blip.fm. I shop online via Amazon or Newegg. I play video games online via Steam or Facebook. I do my banking online to pay my bills, make investments, etc. Heck, I sometimes go to church online!
Fortunately, I’m happy to say not everything is Internet based. I still need to go to the supermarket, as my fridge still can’t call a local market to deliver groceries to me. I still need to go out with family or friends to a local restaurant (although arranging the meeting is being done online).
If there is one thing I like to do via the Internet (that I’m unable to do right now) is going to the office for work. Working from home is still underrated in my company. Unfortunately, it’s a political issue, so I’m stuck having to commute 30 minutes each way to/from work – when I can just turn on my laptop and be at work in 2 minutes. I don’t know when that will change. I can only hope the next generation of CEOs and managers will see the benefit and practicality.
So it’s been an amazing 40 years for the Internet. Here’s looking at another 40 years of good times online!
Photo Credit: extremeyarx
- Remembering Unix Talk, the new Internet thing to enhance that immensely is Google Wave. I still don’t have a beta invite, yet, but I’m looking forward to try it. [↩]
- Is there such a thing as a “mild addiction”? [↩]
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Hi Rudy,
Wow, the internet is 40 years old?! I didn’t realize the internet had been around for so long. I do remember my very first “computer” if you can call it that. I used to have webtv years ago and that is how I accessed the internet and used email etc. Wow how times have changed since then.
It’s been amazing to me the number of parents who contact me saying their kids are addicted to not just the internet but video games especially and ask for suggestions about getting them off the computer. Hello??? It’s called parenting with a capitol P.
Becoming addicted to the internet is quite easy. Even though I am FAR from being addicted to this box in front of me, I have made some changes to the amount of time I spend just playing around online, or
wasting timetalking to people on Twitter and various other social networking sites.Life is what we all make of it, and there is nothing more important to me than spending real time with the people I love and care about. I don’t ever want to look back on all these years of writing for my different blogs and end up regretting missing out on time with family and friends.
By the way, a few years ago there used to be a way to order groceries online from local grocery stores and have the stuff delivered, and I did that a couple of times. I don’t know if that is still possible, but going grocery shopping is one necessary thing I do not enjoy.
Hi Lin,
Yeah, can you believe it? Time flew and the Internet caught up with our lives. Now we’re revolving (evolving?) around it.
It’s not hard to pry myself out of the internet: I don’t get too many attention here. I get more attention from my wife and daughter, thus I spend more time with them. Amazing how that works out. But I still admit having a slight addiction to this new idiot-box.
I don’t enjoy buying groceries because of the long lines, having difficulties finding parking, and rude cashiers. Maybe what I need is an empty supermarket with pleasant workers.
See you on Facebook! 😉
I can remember signing into my Earthlink dialup connection some 7 years ago. Things have changed so tremendously since then, let alone 40 years ago.
Just think 40 years ago Al Gore invented the internet. Thanks Al, appreciate it and all your efforts to stop global warming while lining your pockets with profits from speeches, books, and appearances.
I wish I could be around 100 years from now to see how the internet develops. Imagine the advances that will come with technology. That is assuming that 2012 on Dec 21st is not the end of times…… I think Al Gore came up with the Mayan calendar as well if I am not mistaken.