The Internet Reaches a Milestone

by Vanessa Loy (BPRW)

Can you remember the first time you heard of something called “email?” Or how about “instant messaging,” “webcasting,” “podcasting,” “picture uploading” or “video embedding?” In many of our lifetimes, it seems like just yesterday that these words and phrases were unknown. In fact, this year quietly marks the 25th anniversary of an innovation that was pivotal in creating today’s vast online world.

Technically speaking, it may more correct to call this the 25th anniversary of TCP/IP, although it doesn't have the familiar ring that the term “Internet” does. According to www.wikipedia.org, the ARPANET was a communication system developed by the United States Department of Defense several years earlier. On January 1, 1983, ARPANET adopted a new set of protocols called Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), or TCP/IP. While the Internet was already in existence, it was this switch to TCP/IP that was the forerunner to its explosion for personal and commercial use.

The years that followed saw the rise of the World Wide Web, personal email servers, search engines and websites. In just a quarter of a century, we’ve gone from computers the size and weight of television sets to checking our email and taking pictures on palm-sized cell phones. People shop, study, watch movies, fill out government forms, make friends and meet their marriage partners with the click of a mouse. Even major presidential candidates for both the Republican and Democrat parties have appeared on online debates to address questions from ordinary Americans.

It would take too long to describe in words all the changes the Internet revolution has brought. The system itself – a seemingly limitless series of connected networks communicating with each other – could be seen as representing the human desire for friendship and understanding.