The 1990s saw great changes in t he way people communicate. People could send mail without going to the post office, and go shopping without leaving home. Words like e-mail and download become part of peoples vocabulary. (71b.)The cause of this great change was the Internet.
The idea for the Internet began in the early 1960s in the United States. The Department of Defnse wanted to connect their computers together in order to share private information. In 1969, the ARPAnet (an early form of the Internet) first connected computers at four American Universities. One computer successfully sent information to another. In 1972, scientists shared ARPAnet with the world. They created a way to send person-to-person messages using ARPAnet. (72a)This was the beginning of e-mail.
Over the next few years, there was a lot of progress made in the world of computing,(73.c) however, most people were not using the Internet. Then, in the 1980s, personal computers became more common. In
the early 1990s, two important things happened: the birth of the World Wide Web in 1991, and the creation of the first Web browser in 1993.The Web made it easier to find information on the Internet, and to move from place to place using links. (74.g)The Web and browser made it possible to see information as a web site with pictures, sound, and words.
Today, millions of people connect to the Internet to send e-mail, visit websites, or store information on servers. Computers are now an important part of our lives(75.d) it is changing how we learn, work, shop, and communicate.