Internet

"That's the beauty of the Web: You can roll around in a stranger's obsession without having to smell his or her house. You can amscray whenever you want without being rude. The site gets its "hit" and you know more about our species' diversity."

"People say, why don't you create a food platform, or something else tech-driven. But if you can't connect to the internet, it doesn't matter what else you can do"

"When education, banking and healthcare are online, and huge groups can't leverage these tools, the people who struggle most are struggling harder."

"When sputnik and Apollo 11 fired the imagination of the world, everyone began predicting that by the end of the century, people would be living in space colonies on Mars and Pluto. Few of these forecasts came true. On the other hand, nobody foresaw the Internet."

"In the next century, planet earth will don an electronic skin. It will use the Internet as a scaffold to support and transmit its sensations. This skin is already being stitched together. It consists of millions of embedded electronic measuring devices: thermostats, pressure gauges, pollution detectors, cameras, microphones, glucose sensors, EKGs, electroencephalographs. These will probe and monitor cities and endangered species, the atmosphere, our ships, highways and fleets of trucks, our conversations, our bodies — even our dreams."

"She was crying to her mother about not being able to finish her homework because she didn't have internet access at home, and the library was closed. I'll never forget the mother's face, she was distraught and it was heartbreaking."

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system."

"“Isn’t the internet wonderful?” she said. “Better than dragons any day.”"

"Caution: Do not mistake the Internet for an encyclopedia, and the search engine for a table of contents. The Internet is a sprawling databank that's about one-quarter wheat and three-quarters chaff."

"The index of a search engine can be thought of as analogous to the stars in sky. What we see has never existed, as the light has traveled different distances to reach our eye. Similarly, Web pages referenced in an index were also explored at different dates and they may not exist any more."

"Twenty years ago no one could have imagined the effects the Internet would have: entire relationships flourish, friendships prosper...there's a vast new intimacy and accidental poetry, not to mention the weirdest porn. The entire human experience seems to unveil itself like the surface of a new planet."

"Considering that the internet has greatly increased our access to unreliable information, and that bullshit still passes through more traditional channels such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and face-to-face conversations, it seems reasonable to suggest that people today are inundated with more bullshit now than ever before. The internet has ushered in the Age of Bullshit."

"Almost everything which you needed to know in your daily life was written down somewhere. And at the time, in the 1980s, it was almost certainly written down on a computer somewhere. It was very frustrating that people's effort in typing it in was not being used when, in fact, if it could only be tied together and made accessible, everything would be so much easier for everybody."

""The web setting out as something which was universal, something which anybody could use, I felt was very important," he said. "It's no good having something which will run on any platform if, in fact, there is a proprietary hold on it." Berners-Lee eventually convinced CERN to release the World Wide Web into the public domain without any patents or fees. He has since attributed the runaway success of the web to that single decision."

"When you go out there, the webpages you see are written by people. You're looking at a certain sub-set of the churning mass of humanity out there. So it's not that the web itself is an animal, but it's that society is this really exciting, decentralized thing, and the web, fortunately, is more or less able to echo it."

"DHCP was invented by a rabid gerbil on speed."

"We have too many cellphones. We've got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now."

"Everything you put online is your professional face. ...whatever you want that to be."

"I hear there's rumors on the internets that we're going to have a draft. We're not going to have a draft, period."

"Direct democracy, made possible by the Internet, does not only relate to popular consultations, but to a new centrality of citizens in society. Current political and social organisations will be dismantled, and some will disappear. Representative democracy, by proxy, will lose its meaning. It is a cultural revolution rather than a technological one, which is why it is often misunderstood or trivialised."

"The Internet will become like air, as Nicholas Negroponte prophesied."

"There are some people who imagine that older adults don't know how to use the internet. My immediate reaction is, "I've got news for you, we invented it.""

"Article 13 of the EU Copyright Directive Threatens the Internet"

"The Internet is like a vault with a screen door on the back. I don't need hammers and bombs to get in when I can walk in through the door."

"Only 12 years ago the networks were fragmented, today the Internet unites the world."

"Imagine being able to communicate at-will with 10 million people all over the world. Imagine having direct access to catalogs of hundreds of libraries as well as the most up-to-date news, busi-ness and weather reports. Imagine being able to get medical advice or gardening advice immediately from any number of experts. "This is not a dream. It's internet."

"The utopian vision of an open, reliable, and secure global network has not been achieved and is unlikely ever to be realized. Today, the internet is less free, more fragmented, and less secure."

"The Internet has made me very casual with a level of omniscience that was unthinkable a decade ago. I now wonder if God gets bored knowing the answer to everything."

"Researchers have sought to understand and explain the core differences between computer-mediated and FtF communication processes (for reviews, see Caplan 2001, 2003; Hancock & Dunham, 2001; Ramirez, Walther, Burgoon, & Sunnafrank, 2002; Riva, 2002; Walther, 199,, 2004; Walther, Anderson, & Park, 1994; Walther & Parks, 2002). Among the earliest theories to emerge was the cues-filtered-out perspective (Culnan & Markus, 1987; also see Walther & Parks, 2002), which suggested that some forms of CMC are less personal than FtF activity because of the reduced number of contextual and nonverbal cues available in text-based online social interaction. The cues-filtered-out perspective asserts that the diminished available cues available in CMC create a heightened sense of anonymity, which leads to a more impersonal communication exchange than is present in FtF interaction. As Ramirez and Burgoon (2004) note, however, researchers have moved away from early perspectives focusing solely on cue deficits, toward more sophisticated theories that consider the cognitive and behavioral mechanisms people use to compensate for the lack of cues available in text-based CMC. One particularly influential theoretical perspective that describes how CMC and FtF processes differ is Walther's (1996) hyperpersonal communication perspective. According to Walther, interpersonal CMC can become hyperpersonal because it affords message sender a host of communicative advantages over traditional FtF interaction. Compared to ordinary FtF situations, due to the reduced number of available nonverbal cues, a hyperpersonal message sender has a greater ability to strategically develop and edit self-presentation, enabling a selective and optimized presentation of oneself to others (Walther, 1996, Walther & Burgoon, 1992). This process then allows senders to selectively control the quantity, quality, and even validity of personal information available to other participants (e.g., age, race, physical appearance, sex), to form idealized impressions of their partners and, consequently, engage in more intimate exchanges than people in FtF situations (Tidwell & Walther; 2002; Walther, 1993, 1996 Walther & Burgoon, 1992)."

"The social identification model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) proposed that, despite offering fewer interpersonal cues (e.g., Culnan & Markus, 1987), CMC is not necessarily impersonal; rather, impression formation online results in more socially categorical, rather than personal, impressions of others (Lea & Spears, 1992; Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995; Spears & Lea, 1992, 1994; Spears, Postmes, & Lea, 2002). Similarly, social information-processing (SIP) theory (Walther, 1992, 1993; Walther & Burgoon, 1992; Walther, Loh, & Granka, 2005) also takes issue with the notion that CMC is necessarily impersonal; instead, SIP theory suggests that online interpersonal relationship development might require more time to develop than traditional FtF relationships."

"In addition to research on CMC and relational communication, in general, other studies have examined therapeutic relational communication online. There is a good deal of evidence suggesting that online support and therapeutic discussion groups are an important positive aspect of the Internet (e.g., see Caplan & Turner, in press; Walther & Perks, 2002; Wright, 1999, 2000, 2002; Wright & Bell, 2003). To date, researchers have not firmly established whether participation in online emotional support has therapeutic value that is less than, equivalent to, or beyond that obtained via FtF support (Finfgeld, 2000; Owen, Yarbough, Varga, & Tucker, 003; Walther & Boyd, 2002). The few studies that have compared computer-mediated and FtF psychotherapy sessions have reported that participants in both groups exhibited relatively equivalent outcomes (e.g., Cohen & Kerr, 1998; Day & Schneider, 2002; for a review, see Rochlen, Zack, & Speyer, 2004). To advance understanding of online emotional support, Walther and Parks (2002) recommend that researchers begin to develop explanations for why CMC might be particularly effective as a support medium."

"[I]n one study comparing FtF to CMC romantic relationships, Cornwell and Lundgren (2001) found that CMC partners engaged in greater misrepresentation during self-presentation than their FtF counterparts. They attributed the difference in levels of misrepresentation to a lower level of relational involvement among CMC romantic partners, compared to those using an FtF channel. In another study, Joinson (2001) reported that levels of spontaneous self-disclosure were greater in CMC exchanges than in FtF interactions when there was a heightened sense of private self-awareness and a lower sense of public self awareness associated with CMC exchange. Other researchers have reported that, compared to FtF interactions, CMC exchanges include more direct and more intimate uncertainty reduction strategies (e.g., greater proportions of direct questions and self-disclosing statements; Tidwell & Walther, 2002), along with less detailed and more intense impressions of communication partners (Hancock & Dunham, 2001). As Rabby and Walther (2003) explain, “The development of relationships online may simply be temporaraly retarded in comparison to FtF relationship development” (p. 148). Empirical evidence supports this hypothesis. In one study of CMC and impression formation, Walther (1993) found that members of FtF groups developed impressions of one another more quickly than their CMC counterparts. But after a 6-week period, the CMC groups formed impressions that were as well developed as those exhibited by the FtF participants."

"In terms of communicating social support, Burleson and Goldsmith (1998) argue that the type of conversational environment most conducive to effective comforting requires reducing the distressed other's self-presentational anxiety. Caplan and Turner (in press) propose that establishing such an environment might be easier and more effective if the conversation is computer-mediated. They further assert that computer-mediated social support interactions might be especially helpful at creating a conversational context that is less socially risky than its FtF counterpart. For example, Walther and Boyd (2002) contend that computer mediated discussions of stigmatized topics are likely to be perceived as less threatening than their FtF counterparts due to their increased anonymity and increased social distance, which facilitate better stigma management. These findings that reflect how CMC social support affords its users reduced social stigma and increased anonymity were further validated by other similar studies (Gustafson et al., 19999; McKenna & Bargh, 1998; White & Dorman, 2001; Wright, 2002). Online health applications are discussed further in chapter 12 by Whitten (this volume). Caplan and Turner (in press) also point out that computer-mediated emotional support allows support seekers who have limited mobility to participate in groups that they would be less willing, if at all able, to attend if offered in an FtF format (Braithwaite, Waldron, & Finn., 1999; White & Dorman, 2001; Wright, 2002). Along a similar line, online conversation partners are not bound by proximity and geographical barriers; individuals can communicate with a seemingly limitless number of diverse people who would be difficult or impossible to locate in most FtF cases (Barrera, Glasgow, McKay, Boles, & Feil, 2002; Braithwaite et al., 1999; Finfgeld, 2000; Finn, 1999; Sharf, 1997; Walther & Boyd, 2002; White & Dorman, 2001; Wizelberg, 1997; Wright, 2002)."

"Young (1998) reported that dependent users mainly utilized the social and interactive functions of the Internet, whereas nondependents used the Internet more for information gathering. Similarly, Young and Rogers (1998) note that problematic or abusive Internet use involved primarily socially interactive uses, which also appear to be associated with low self-esteem. In another study, Morahan-Martin and Schumacher (2000) found that the social aspects of Internet use consistently differentiated those with more Internet use problems from others, as the former were more likely to use the Internet for seeking emotional support, talking with others, and playing highly socially interactive games. LaRose, Lin, and Eastin (2003), based on uses and gratifications as well as operant conditioning theory, argue that when individuals have received repeated expected grafifications (or rewards) from Internet use over time, their Internet use behavior can turn into a conditioned habit (operant conditions). If these individuals subsequently preoccupy themselves with this habit due to deficient self-regulation of their Internet use behavior, they can go one step further and isolate themselves from society to the extent of becoming addicted to Internet use."

"In conclusion, computer-mediated social interaction technologies have facilitated significant changes in how people relate to members of their personal and professional social networks. For example, physical distance or proximity between network members is becoming increasingly less important. Thus, as Meyerowitz (1985) observes, “Where one is has less and less to do with that one knows and experiences. Electronic media have altered the significance of time and space for social interaction” (p. viiii). These changes in social interaction channels also create new challenges for parents. Growing concerns about children's safety online, for example, stem from the increasingly permeable physical boundaries that once separated families from the larger community. Meyerowitz (1985) notes that “the walls of the family home, for example, are no longer effective barriers that wholly isolate the family from the larger community and society. The family home is now a less bounded and unique environment” (p. viii). As computer-mediated social interaction becomes more widespread, we can expect that physical location will become an increasingly less salient predictor of with whom we interact. Hampton and Wellan (2000) make a similar point, observing that “whatever happens, new communication technologies are driving out the traditional belief that community can only be found locally” (p. 195). Clearly, communications scholars will need to adapt communication theories to evolving technologies and changing contexts in order to understand the uses and effects of computer-mediated social interaction technologies."

"NPR's coverage of the post-web era describes a "great online awakening" driven by an explosion in the number of internet-connected people. "The result is more chaos than you can imagine and literally thousands and thousands of websites," Rich Dean reported for NPR in 1996. By the end of 1995, more than 24 million people in the U.S. and Canada alone spent an average of 5 hours per week on the internet."

"I’m turning 41, but I don’t feel like celebrating."

"Doing research on the Web is like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly."

"Things have been going in the wrong direction -- more surveillance, more control of everything we do on the net and also stricter copyright laws -- that's the wrong course for Europe. We want to set a new one."

"High-speed internet has a positive impact on poverty reduction."

"Better access to information increases farmers' effectiveness in agriculture. And fintech [financial technology] can make transactions more effective and less corrupt."

"The Internet, in particular, offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity, this is something truly good, a gift from God."

"Internet is the most successful example of the eternal present."

"As customers embrace the Net for real business, they're doing something much more than posting a Web site, offering their brochure or 800 number on the Web. "E-Business" done well involves every process of their business -- from order entry to inventory, to fulfillment, to distribution, to customer care. Consequently, it challenges, and in some cases overturns, very established ways of doing business in financial services, in distribution, in almost every industry."

"The main point here is that there will be lots of ways -- lots of low-cost ways -- for people to get on the Net and participate in this new economy. So, together we will have a greater opportunity to take unprecedented levels of service and information to the entire world regardless of an individual's social or political standing, or personal buying power."

"Today, almost everyone is talking about the Internet as the ultimate medium of business. And so now we find ourselves in 1999 taking an equally unconventional position: Today it's clear to us that the greatest value being created by this networking technology is not in these new "dot-com" Internet companies that a lot of people seem to believe are going to redefine the world of retail, of Wall Street, of the media industry, and gobble up everyone's business. These are interesting companies, and maybe one or two of them will be profitable someday. But I think of them as fireflies before the storm all stirred up, throwing off sparks. But the storm that's arriving -- the real disturbance in the force -- is when the thousands and thousands of institutions that exist today seize the power of this global computing and communications infrastructure and use it to transform themselves. That's the real revolution. ...Right now, there's a lot of focus on e-commerce -- on Net-based buying and selling. But we think that equally important, if not more important, are the staggering investments our customers are starting to make in what we call "e-business." E-business includes e-commerce, of course. But it's about a broader set of transactions and important applications that will go to the Net in supply chain, in customer care, in e-service; and internally in applications from product development to logistics to employee training to knowledge management inside enterprises. In fact, our view is that the Web enabling of these core business process will deliver returns on investments that will equal or exceed the returns on investments coming from e-commerce."

"The NET is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it."

"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."

"The Internet has created a seismic disruption to the balance of power in the media. It is getting easier and easier to post your thoughts, photos, or videos. Yet the Wild West of the Web is being tamed. Small Internet service providers are being driven out of business, with corporations like Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, and AT&T dominating the market. Privacy, security, and the freedom to publish without fear of censorship are dwindling with each merger, with each effort by corporate lobbyists to further restrict the open Internet in favor of a narrow profit advantage."

"The origin of the Internet dates back to when, in the shadow of the former Soviet Union's program the United States established the (DARPA) within the Department of Defense. Four years later a Ph.D. student at , Leonard Kleinrock, published the first paper on theory. With packet switching a message that is sent from one computer to another is broken down into small packets of digital data."