What is the Internet?

What is the internet?

The internet is a place where people from all over the world can discover the answers to absolutely anything. From academic journals, to discussion forums to humorous videos that teach one how to walk on an egg, the internet offers seemingly endless possibilities to learning. It is a digital space where absolute strangers are able to meet, communicate, and become close friends or even enemies without ever having to see each other in real life. It is also a resource that people can use to gather and connect in a situation where face-to-face meeting is restricted. In today’s generation, the internet has become a significant part of everyday life.

For me, I still vividly remember what the internet meant to me when I was younger. I remember always being excited to visit my aunt’s place, just because she has a computer room where she can pull up game sites on the internet for me to play dress up games and customize my own character. At that time, I used to think that the internet was just another word for “cool games”. I also remember constantly begging my parents to teach me how to type on the computer to find game websites when I was only around six years old, but struggling to even type out my own name in Mandarin. As I grew up, sites like YouTube and Vine became increasingly relevant, and I began to use the internet as a space to listen to music and watch funny videos. Now, I use my smartphone everyday to access internet social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, everywhere I go. Whether it be to converse with friends or just to browse sites to kill time, I find myself spending a relatively large part of my day scrolling. It also allowed me to meet total strangers that ended up becoming my best friends in real life. Without it, there would have been absolutely no way I would ever meet them. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, I use the internet to stay updated with the current news and attend lectures when I am across the globe in a completely different continent. The internet now serves as the main means of communication between students, educators, and institutions. It has also become something addictive that I spend a significant part of my daily life and depend on.