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Who uses the Internet?

© Chris Cruickshank

I was talking to a friend of mine over the Internet (they live in the States while I live in the UK), and we got to wondering about what the Internet actually means and how people use it. I thought about this for awhile and it got me thinking about who actually uses the Internet.

Around 1994/1995, the British government proudly talked about the "Information Super Highway" (the Internet) as a way of obtaining information from anywhere in the world and how it would change all our lives. At that time, the Internet was mostly bulletin boards (newsgroups) and populated by what most people term as "computer geeks" (No offence to those who were using the Internet at that time!).

Indeed, even today, a lot of those people who have NOT used the Internet would think that only "anoraks and geeks" connect to the information super highway. But is this really the case?

Chances are, the answer is a resounding "No." More and more new, first-time computer users are connecting to and surfing the Internet. But what are they actually doing? And what CAN you do? And what are the implications of using the Internet?

Everyone else has their ideas on this so I thought I would add mine - just to confuse things even further! I would also like to relate to you some myths about the Internet that I heard when I was a new Internet user (a "Newbie").

Surfing

Surfing is the term used to describe the act of visiting/reading web sites. We have all done it and it can be a lot of fun (and CAN be torture too!). I would say that "surfing" covers the following, main areas...

Looking for software to download. One of the most frequent uses of the Internet

Looking for information on a subject. You can find a web site on ANY topic you can imagine (and a lot on those you can't!), from Teletubbies to the Spice Girls to details of the latest shuttle mission - it's all on the Internet, somewhere! Honing your search engine skills is well worth the effort if you find yourself "searching the Net."

News. I made this a separate item, as this is probably the number one reason most people connect to the Internet. The news about President Clinton, the death of Princess Diana was all covered, often within minutes of the events taking place on the Internet.

Meeting people. This is interesting and I must admit one of my favourite reasons for using the Internet. I have met people from every continent on the globe and have made some great friends. For a lot of people, this is another major reason for using the Internet. I'll expand on this more further in the article.