Internet; The Greatest Invention

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. In the case of the internet, the need was for a government weapon during the Cold War (history channel). Government leaders feared that the soviets could destroy the telephone system in the United States and that there would be no way for them to communicate. From the fear and need sparked by the cold war, one of the greatest inventions of the nineteen hundreds was born.

The internet is undoubtedly one of the most widely used services in existence. It has 2,405,518,376 users and 70% of them access the internet daily (gator crossing). Why do all these people use the internet? Because the internet is convenient. This is the primary reason the internet is so great. At the click of a mouse, a myriad of websites for virtually anything can be accessed. Because the internet is multifunctional, it is used for many different reasons, with communication being one of the most important.

Because of the internet, e-mail can be used by individuals to communicate. E-mail allows communication between businesses to be faster while remaining formal. According to Radicati, a technology market research firm, more than 100 billion business emails were sent and received every day in 2013. Without internet, each of these would be individually mailed letters. It also provides a great way for individuals to communicate because it is free and available to anyone who has access to a computer or other internet enabled device. Internet is also important in the logistics area of communication. When packages are shipped, they are labeled with a barcode and each time the package enters a new part of the shipping process, the barcode is scanned. The information about the package collected from the barcode is...

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...s are the greatest inventions of the nineteen hundreds, like penicillin or the lie detector. While both of these are great inventions, that are needed, I disagree. Yes, penicillin has saved many lives, and yes, the lie detector has convicted many killers and cheating husbands, the simple fact is their range is much smaller than the internets. Many more people are affected by and use the internet, than those who will be affected by or use either of the other two inventions. And while penicillin and the modern lie detector will both eventually be replaced, the internet is an ever-growing and continuously improving network which will not be tossed aside easily.

The variety of uses, amount of usage, irreplaceability, ability to adapt to a changing world, and convenience of the internet make it undisputably the greatest invention in America during the nineteen hundreds.