The internet has totally changed our lives. Perhaps no other invention in recent times has had as a dramatic effect as on our daily lives as the internet. As of June 2012, there are more than 2.4 billion people, that is roughly a third of the world’s population, on the internet. With the advent of the internet, a whole slew of new words have entered our vocabulary. Words like email, google, and download would have been unrecognizable only a decade or two ago.
One of the great tools the internet provides is the wealth of online articles and online reference materials it puts at the disposal of web surfers. It is very hard, if not impossible, to think of a topic or subject for which there are not at least a dozen articles online. This has helped bring education and learning to millions, if not billions, of people around the world. In years past, you would have to go to a library or purchase an expensive set of encyclopedias. Now, that is no longer necessary thanks to the wealth of online information.
Indeed, the internet has threatened to eliminate traditional books altogether. This is not online due to the mass of online reference materials, but also due to the advent of ebooks. ebooks are short hand for electronic books. They are essentially digitized versions of traditional paper books that can be read on a computer or, more commonly, a portable electronic device called an ereader. There are no millions of ebooks available now. A recent study found that 66% of libraries are offering ebooks to check out. You can learn more about the internet by searching online…no joke!