Wired World
A new report shows more people are online than ever before.
“Everyone who uses the Internet, please stand up!” If that message could be heard all over the world at the same time, how many people do you think would stand up?
The answer is almost two billion, or nearly one-third of all human beings on the planet. That number comes from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Since 2005, the number of people who have access to the Internet through cell phones or computer use has doubled. To have access to something is to have the ability to use it. The Internet is a communications system that connects computers around the world.
Countries in the Lead
A growing percentage of the world’s Internet users access the Internet not through their computers, but with their cell phones. According to ITU, there were an estimated 5.9 billion cell phone subscriptions in 2011. Mobile phone networks are now available to 90 percent of the world’s population.
The wealthier nations of the world have the most people using the Internet. Poorer nations have the fewest Internet users. The biggest difference in Internet use between the richest nations and the poorest nations is called the global digital divide. However, the digital divide is getting smaller. Of the 226 million new Internet users added in 2010, most (162 million) came from the world’s poorer countries.
Who are the digital leaders? Sweden comes in at number one. The country is followed by Luxembourg, South Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Switzerland, and Japan. The United States comes in at 19.
Who are the digital leaders? Sweden comes in at number one. The country is followed by Luxembourg, South Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Switzerland, and Japan. The United States comes in at 19.
Kids Surf
How has this rapid, or quick, growth in Internet use affected young people around the world?
Toshie Takahashi, a professor who specializes in how young people relate to the Internet, spoke to WR News.
“Kids can ... communicate with each other using the Internet. ... National boundaries are no barrier.” A barrier is something that blocks something else. Takahashi says there are some kids who have mixed feelings about the Internet. “It is good in that they can easily make friends, play games, and do other things with kids even on the other side of the globe. But the Internet can be harmful, they say, because it leaves them open to cyberbullying and other harmful things. In general, though, for kids, the Internet has shrunk the world. It does not seem like such a big place anymore.”
Takahashi thinks that increasing Internet use has led to a better understanding between young people worldwide. “Kids all over the world love American pop music and pop culture,” she says. “And an increasing number of American kids are ... learning about pop culture in other countries. I interviewed a U.S. teen who is fascinated with Japanese animation, for instance.” To be fascinated is to be excited about something or someone.
Takahashi says that, especially in Asia, more kids use cell phones to access the Internet than computers. “In China, for instance, they don’t have a lot of public access to the Internet, but they have a huge number of cell phones capable of downloading a lot of data quickly. In Japan, ... students research and write papers using their cell phones alone!”
Toshie Takahashi, a professor who specializes in how young people relate to the Internet, spoke to WR News.
“Kids can ... communicate with each other using the Internet. ... National boundaries are no barrier.” A barrier is something that blocks something else. Takahashi says there are some kids who have mixed feelings about the Internet. “It is good in that they can easily make friends, play games, and do other things with kids even on the other side of the globe. But the Internet can be harmful, they say, because it leaves them open to cyberbullying and other harmful things. In general, though, for kids, the Internet has shrunk the world. It does not seem like such a big place anymore.”
Takahashi thinks that increasing Internet use has led to a better understanding between young people worldwide. “Kids all over the world love American pop music and pop culture,” she says. “And an increasing number of American kids are ... learning about pop culture in other countries. I interviewed a U.S. teen who is fascinated with Japanese animation, for instance.” To be fascinated is to be excited about something or someone.
Takahashi says that, especially in Asia, more kids use cell phones to access the Internet than computers. “In China, for instance, they don’t have a lot of public access to the Internet, but they have a huge number of cell phones capable of downloading a lot of data quickly. In Japan, ... students research and write papers using their cell phones alone!”
Who Invented the Internet?
U.S. Department of Defense members were the first world’s “Webmasters.”
The department created the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). That was a network of university and U.S. military computers. ARPANET machines could share information and “talk” to one another. By 1981, approximately 200 computers were on the network.
After the World Wide Web was created in 1991, ARPANET and other networks joined to form what we know today as the Internet.
After the World Wide Web was created in 1991, ARPANET and other networks joined to form what we know today as the Internet.
America, Online
Ever wonder how the Internet works? Browse through the time line to learn about some major moments in the Internet’s history.
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