Jkhjhkkjh

The Internet’s effect on Modern Society

A look at how Web 2.0 technologies are revolutionizing the world

Name: Hayley Fein

Student: 06294720

Course: SOCY284

TA: Jennifer Matsunaga

Date: December 7, 2012

In the 21st century, the web has evolved into a platform allowing us to collaborate, connect, and share in ways that were previously unimaginable. According to a 2012 report by VC Firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, there are currently 2.3 billion Internet users worldwide, an 8 percent increase from 2011 (Cohen 2012). Today’s youth are growing up in a world where technologies have become embedded in everyday life such that they influence the formation of one’s social environment. The Internet, or the “Worldwide web”, is a system of networks that facilitates sharing information and communicating with millions of institutions, businesses, and individuals globally (Hand 2012). In the recent decades, technology has fostered societal change as we transition further into an information society, characterized by human capital, globalization, and social networks. The Internet offers a world of information to people, as previous geographical constraints have become irrelevant and individuals can share and communicate freely. We increasingly experience the world through information technology--tweeting, texting, and sharing online. Originally created in the 1960’s for the United States military, the net has revolutionized society as a prominent medium of communication (Hand 2012). Networks have enabled the dissolution of hierarches and social differences, as the global economy became characterized by the flow and exchange of capital, communication, and information. It has redefined social relationships as the net creates new forums of social interaction and virtual communities. The web has come to represent a major driving force in creating a unified global community, as advances in ICTS have enabled...