The internet can safely be considered the game-changer of the 21st century in every sense of the term. How it was created and developed is not what this article deals with. Enough has been said about that and can be found on the internet! This piece is more concerned with the socio-cultural impact of this great invention.
Every aspect of our existence has been influenced by the online connectivity that is the product of the internet. Businesses have adapted newer and more creative models. Education has become much denser with the various tools that are afforded by the internet. Agriculture, industry, the tertiary sector, health care, media, even politics and the list can go on, but the truth remains that every societal aspect has been transformed by the sheer use of the internet.
The urban as well as rural structures have seen the internet make an entry and bring huge changes. The social institutions of family and marriage bear the testimony of significant alteration due to the internet. The supreme example of that is the various matrimonial websites. Marriages are considered a sacrament or a sacred contract but people are not shying anymore in making use of online data to arrive at the desired life-partner. Numerous examples of meeting and video chatting online are transforming into marital alliances. Given today’s modern context, time has become the most valuable asset. Besides that, joint families have shrunk and alliances through extended families cannot be the norm anymore. The online marital assistant serves the purpose rather well combining the traditional requirements of the parties seeking an alliances, as well making up for the lack of time. The profiles of the parties are prepared in great details. The sample space becomes very large thanks to the entire data being online. People end up meeting others interested and relevant people who they could have not known in the physical space. The online world thus is ideal for transcending both time and space while fruitfully contributing to the functions of society.
The terms global village and digital native are not mere fashionable coinages but a reality now. The social media is also a product of the internet. People across the world have found one big platform to voice their opinions and seek others’ advice. This shrinking of conversational forums has been made possible only due to World Wide Web. News and newsmakers travel faster and much more democratically now. Though there is always a risk of too many irresponsible statements or opinions floating online regarding any particular issue, at least news has stopped to be anyone’s monopoly. This can be seen clearly during various socio-political events in various corners of the world where ‘netizens’ participate freely it is whether to support a cause or critique it.
The internet has definitely put everything out there in the open but the tendency of ‘anything goes’ has to be guarded against. There is no monitoring whatsoever and thus a cautious discretion has to be the mantra. Nonetheless there is no denying the fact that in millennia to come, if we manage to save planet earth from destruction, the world might as well be chronicled as Before Internet and After Internet.
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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in November, 2011. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.
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