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1. Unlimited Access To Information

- The invention of WWW brings about the so-called era of information

- From physical form --> digital news

- Various sources of news

+ Social medias: facebook, twitter

+ News websites: vnexpress, newyorktimes, …

-> boost education, self-learn capability

2. Bridging The Culture Gap

- We used to be clueless about other countries

- App that allow us to communicate regardless of geographical difficulties: facetime, facebook, zalo, …

- accelerate globalization

- Thanks to that we can talk and converse with foreign friends

- All the information is on the internet

3. Jobs And Business

- apps that can enable working from home --> creates a whole range of job opportunities for people from other countries

- Vice versa, business will not be limited in just hiring people in the local area à instead can find the most suitable candidates in other parts of the world

4. Endless Entertainment

- Apps like youtube, facebook , tik tok

-> create a way to vent in this hustling and bustling word

5. New Connections

- Dating and other social sites are a booming section of the internet, that has altered the process of finding a partner for life

B. Cons

1. A Breeding Ground For Illegal Activity

- Deep web à a place where the internet police have a hard time locating the crime

- Spreading fake news, misleading news to raise outrage

2. The World Is Becoming Dependent

- The internet is addictive

- the www has been integrated so deeply into our lives, it appears in every part of our life

-> it’s hard to imagine the world without it

- This means our medical records, criminal records, educational records, and finance records are all completely dependent on the security of the sites that they reside on

3. Compromises Personal Information

- Everything that you search or put onto the internet is completely traceable to the person it belongs to à Eg: If you search something about shoes, you will suddenly begin to see ads for shoe sellers on every website you visit, and even begin to get ads from shoe stores in the mail

- Hackers can easily access this information and commit fraud and identity theft.

4. Children Are Vulnerable and Exposed

- There is no way to truly verify age on the internet

-  Pornographic material is the most prominent, and children can very easily stumble upon these types of websites and be exposed to things that they should not be

-  Children every day are persuaded by online “friends” to meet them or do things for them that put them at great risk

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https://www.ukessays.com/essays/media/impacts-of-the-world-wide-web-media-essay.php

Impacts of WWW on society
+ Rapid instant communication
++  means a one-on-one setting in sending and receiving of messages
++ a person in one continent can easily communicate with another in a totally faraway places as though they were communicating face to face by services like chat, face book and emailing
++ innovations in communication cause a cultural drift
++ changes in communication methods and modes shape human life

+ Impact of World Wide Web on Businesses
++ it has enabled businesses and organizations to establish a presence
+++ its services and functions can easily be read about any time of day
++ it has made it possible for organizations working in the same line of industry to network, form partnerships and learn from each other all through the web
++ helps netting of potential clients, suppliers, donors and other stakeholders
++ can be used as an additional source of income
++ possible to have employees placed outside the office area and still have business going on as usual

+ Impact of World Wide Web on Social Networking
++ makes making friends easier
++ helps keeping in touch with various other happenings around the world

+ Negative impacts of World Wide Web
++ websites that contain misleading, addictive and false information
++ addictive
++ decisions are based on the outcome of a result given by a computer, more than common knowledge

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Commonly known as WWW, the World Wide Web, as the name suggests, is a massive wireless interlinked connection that is supported by a series of URL links, and which has made the world to become a global village as the common adage goes. This is because it has come with such a great and felt impact that has revolutionalized communication, business, travel, networking, not forgetting socializing. Introduction into the WWW technology began way back in centuries gone, but the impacts, advantages and disadvantages that came with it are now greatly felt in this day and age of the twenty first century. WWW is commonly referred to as online, wireless communication, or as a majority of people would say- the internet. However, it is important to note that there is a big difference between internet and WWW. While internet is a large system of interconnected computer networks linked by the Protocol Suite and is what supports the use of World Wide Web, the WWW is a dependent factor that relies on the availability of internet to transmit information (James and Cailliau 2000 p. 27).

Essay Writing Service

Some of the impacts that World Wide Web has had so far especially in communication include speeding up of instant messaging, facilitation of internet forums, social networking online, blogging, online shopping and e-business has also been boosted in terms of marketing and advertisements. Specifically, on the study of communications, the World Wide Web has played a significant role in creating a channel in which people can do online research, get reviews on what the technology users have to say about the innovation and establish any existing loopholes in online communication and how they can be bridged. The World Wide Web provides information that creators and innovators of communication channels can make use of in the quest to provide cheap, effective, reliable and state-of-the-art gadgets for communication purposes. One of the most world-wide felt impacts of WWW on communication is rapid instant communication that affects almost every other aspect of life be it social, economic, political or educational. Rapid instant communication implies that communication is no longer one way. It is no longer necessary to wait for days on end for a reply on some issue from a receiver of your message, but on the other hand, communication between sender and receiver of the message has changed from being receiver oriented to both receiver and sender oriented. How is this possible? This question shall form the basis of the study and feedback projected in this paper (Wendy, 2010 p.46).

Rapid instant communication

According to Samuel in his book Clarifying McLuhan: an assessment of process and product, rapid instant communication implies a one-on-one setting in sending and receiving of messages. In other words, it refers to a situation whereby communicators no longer have to wait for a long period of time in order for their message to be replied to by the receiver of the message. This therefore means that a person in one continent can easily communicate with another in a totally different continent as though they were communicating face to face. This has been made possible by services like chat, face book and emailing. Such connections make it possible for people the world over to relate and form forums in which they can even hold discussions on diversified issues which are happening way far away from where they are located. With use of facilities like the web camera, it is even possible to see someone with whom you are communicating on your computer while they are on the other side of the world (Arthur, 1995 p. 28).

This kind of communication is what has rapidly converted the world into a small village whereas in years gone such was just a dream for many innovators. There is now improved rapid communication in various sectors and this is supported by an old theory proposed by one Marshall McLuhan. His theory, titled Technological determinism, put forth that the changes that occur in the ways in which human beings communicate go a long way in determining the course our existence takes. The proponent of the theory feels that culture is highly dependent on the way in which we are able to communicate as human beings. This in other words is to say that innovations in communication cause a cultural drift. Secondly, changes in communication methods and modes shape human life. Media, as the greatest channel of communication, is considered as anything that affects human ability to communicate (Samuel and McLuhan 1967 p. 37).

Consequently, it goes without saying that innovations that affect media as a channel of communication also affect human culture and communication. He looks at the transformation of communication from mere word of mouth, to literate age that could read and write to print media and eventually to the electronic age where society is at now.

Today, people tend to believe printed information or that which they can collect from the web pages, more than they believe in information passed through the word of mouth. The theory also proposes that for any information to be accepted or rejected, it must undergo a series of stages which are awareness creation, persuasion or evaluation, decision making on whether to accept the information and lastly confirmation. These processes take a shorter time depending on the means of communication that are being used, meaning that word of mouth communication would take a relatively longer period to pass through all these stages than information posted through the web pages. This goes on to explain what happens to ideas suggested to one community from another, and how their evaluation and final acceptance or rejection ends up shaping the culture, values and beliefs of the recipient community. According to McLuhan, individuality has been removed from culture and instead, what matters today to society is the method of communication that is deemed important for communication as that will be what society will flow with (Arthur, 1995 p.34).

Impact of World Wide Web on Businesses

As explained above, the greatest impact of WWW is the speeding up of communication. How then does this form of communication impart of businesses? The most important thing about WWW is that it has enabled businesses and organizations to establish a presence. Businesses that want to explore great heights and to establish themselves the world over can only ignore the importance of the World Wide Web at their own peril. Creation of websites in which firms can market themselves is dependent on the WWW linkage. With the creation of a website, a company can rest assured that its services and functions can easily be read about any time of day seven days a week. Another impact is that the World Wide Web has made it possible for organizations working in the same line of industry to network, form partnerships and learn from each other all through the web (Stanley and Dennis 2008 p.37).

This is also true for netting of potential clients, suppliers, donors and other stakeholders. Use of the World Wide Web has become a very easy way of passing business cards and maintaining contacts with clients. Needless to say, a website can be used as an additional source of income. This is possible by making your website an online sales point in the sense that visitors to the website can order and purchase your services online and pay through their credit cards without necessarily visiting your stores physically ( Stevenson, 1995 p.54).

One more result that can be associated with instant communication as a result of the World Wide Web is the fact that it I now possible to have employees placed outside the office area and still have business going on as usual. This is because through the firmâ€™s website, information can be passed to and from the employees consistently and from anywhere (Stanley and Dennis 2008 p. 89)

Impact of World Wide Web on Social Networking

It is not a new thing for many people that with social networking websites and electronic mail communication websites like twitter and yahoo mail respectively have played a great role in bring people together in terms of spontaneous and rapid communication. It is possible to chat with friends online and even date with the intentions of getting married, all by logging into some special websites that offer such services. On this social networking websites itâ€™s not only about making friends but also about keeping in touch with various other happenings around the world. One can get the latest news, download the latest music and movies and younger people and children can play online games or download them. In addition to socializing, it has now become very possible to get political views and stay informed on the most current news around the world, all by staying connected to the relevant websites. For example, a person in America is now very able to track letâ€™s say for example the election results of a country in Asia as it happens, all of which ahs been made possible by the World Wide Web (Arthur, 1995 p. 43).

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Today, people cannot imagine themselves without logging into websites to check the latest mails, breaking news, weather reports and even to shop for holidays online, all because of the WWW technology. The Web cannot be traced, it cannot be pinpointed, all because it is growing by the day. Its growth and expansion is a gradual process that is ongoing, and which is not likely to stop any time soon (Ramesh, 2004 p. 78).

Negative impacts of World Wide Web

There is much that can be said about the impacts of World Wide Web, and especially about the positive impacts, but we cannot just afford to overlook the negative impacts associated with the same. One of the major negative impacts associated with World Wide Web is that some people are now creating websites that contain misleading, addictive and false information, which when it falls in the hands of unsuspecting information users, may end up damaging their outlook in life (Ahuja and Shakti 1978 p. 23).

Just to give an example, an article published online and written by one Allen Alberson says that there are a number of websites that have been created with the intention of providing suicidal persons with information on how to go about killing themselves. This website as actually helped take away the lives of quite a number of youngsters who were feeling suicidal at the time they took away their lives after reading trough these websites. More information can be found here; http://www.helium.com/items/1223307-suicide-chat-rooms .

Much more can be said about the negative impacts of WWW but just to mention a few is that the World Wide Web is addictive and many people find themselves spending much of their time on social websites instead of doing other more constructive things. One more thing that is happening is that more and more people now tend to make decisions based on technological advance. In other words, decisions are based on the outcome of a result given by a computer, more than common knowledge. For example, it is not uncommon to hear that an organization is not giving a certain service to clients at a given time, simply because the systems are down. One is left to wonder how clients used to be served before the innovation of websites and online services (Allen, 2010 p.1).

Conclusion

From the findings above, it is evident that the World Wide Web has played a great role in changing communication from analogue to digital and this has revolutionalized the world in so may aspects. The network society, as it has popularly come to be known as, now need to take control of the advancing technology so that it can be able to organize itself on the basis of what people of various diversities share in common in a non-hierarchal manner. The World Wide Web is an avenue through which the public and the private can be merged together for better cohesion. Just to site an example, the revelation of the affair between the former US President Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky came out in a big way to influence how he would perform in politics after that. Since technology has no ethical or moral restraints, it has in itself become all important for such happenings that would otherwise have remained unknown. It can thus be said with such finality that such new communication technologies like the World Wide Web will continue to make people feel more connected and to help them mainstream aspects of life such as politics, socializing, commerce and well as entertainment (Stevenson, 1995 p. 38).

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Impacts Of The World Wide Web Media Essay

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Commonly known as WWW, the World Wide Web, as the name suggests, is a massive wireless interlinked connection that is supported by a series of URL links, and which has made the world to become a global village as the common adage goes.

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How the World Wide Web has changed our lives

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How the World Wide Web has changed our lives

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30 năm World Wide Web: Internet đã thay đổi thế giới như thế nào? | VTV24

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30 năm World Wide Web: Internet đã thay đổi thế giới như thế nào? | VTV24

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https://futureofworking.com/9-biggest-pros-and-cons-of-internet/

A. Pros
1. Unlimited Access To Information
2. Bridging The Culture Gap
3. Jobs, Business, And Marketing
4. Endless Entertainment
5. New Connections

B. Cons

1. A Breeding Ground For Illegal Activity

2. The World Is Becoming Dependent
3. Compromises Personal Information
4. Children Are Vulnerable and Exposed

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The world wide web, or the internet, is a piece of technology that has revolutionized the entire world. The way that we think, conduct business, communicate, and entertain ourselves have all changed thanks to the internet. The web can be accessed just about anywhere and on all sorts of different mediums, which makes it difficult to imagine our world without the internet, but would it be better? It's hard to truly break down the effects of the internet on society, but the best way to start is by examining all of the benefits and drawbacks that we know of.

The Pros of the Internet

1. Unlimited Access To Information
Anything you could ever imagined can be found and learned about in detail on the internet. There are millions upon millions of websites that are dedicated to all different types of topics. This wealth of information helps people to better understand things that they may have never thought or cared about before.

2. Bridging The Culture Gap
Communication has been another incredible by product of the internet. People can connect to people all over the world with just a few clicks of the mouse. This has resulted in a much better acceptance and understanding of different cultures around the world.

3. Jobs, Business, And Marketing
Ever since the commercialization of the internet, the business world has never been the same. The ability to reach wide spanning markets, collect valuable research on potential customers, and conduct business in other parts of the country or world, has created a virtual business boom that no one could have for seen. Along with the business sides of things, people now also have the ability to search and apply for jobs completely through the internet, which has opened up the world job market to many people with valuable skills to offer.

4. Endless Entertainment
Right along the economical and financial aspects of the internet, entertainment has also been forever changed. Any movie, music, game, books, or software that you could possibly think of is available right on the world wide web. It has completely shifted the way that we entertain ourselves.

5. New Connections
Dating and other social sites are a booming section of the internet, that has altered the process of finding a partner for life. Whether it be friends or a spouse, people are making new connections with people that they may have never met otherwise. It broadens the view of access to meet and mingle with new people.

The Cons of the Internet

1. A Breeding Ground For Illegal Activity
One of the unintended consequences of the internet has been the immense amount of illegal and dangerous activity that it has harbored and perpetuated. The ease of information has given insight for burglaries, terrorist attacks, kidnappings, and many other types of crimes. It also sparked a crime of a different sort, but on a monumental level. This crime is piracy, which is downloading or distributing materials such as movies or music, without the consent of the person who owns it. It is possibly the most committed crime in today's society, because people simply do not view it as a true problem. However, artists, software developers, and producing companies would strongly disagree. Before the internet, if you wanted to hear the latest album or see the newest movie, you had to go and pay for that privilege, now they can simply be downloaded for free.

2. The World Is Becoming Dependent
All of our information is not stored with the use of the internet. This means our medical records, criminal records, educational records, and finance records are all completely dependent on the security of the sites that they reside on. Computer viruses are very common and are becoming more and more aggressive. They are transferred through the communication access of the internet and if one was designed well enough, it could shut down the economy.

3. Compromises Personal Information
Everything that you search or put onto the internet is completely traceable to the person it belongs to. While this is used for crime prevention, it also much more commonly used as a means of gaining market data. If you search something about shoes, you will suddenly begin to see ads for shoe sellers on every website you visit, and even begin to get ads from shoe stores in the mail. Much secure information is also put voluntarily into the cyber world, like bank information and social security numbers. Hackers can easily access this information and commit fraud and identity theft.

4. Children Are Vulnerable and Exposed
There is no way to truly verify age on the internet, this is a big concern because there is a wealth of content that should not be accessed by children. Pornographic material is the most prominent, and children can very easily stumble upon these types of websites and be exposed to things that they should not be. Along with finding inappropriate materials online, children are also at a great risk because of how easy it is to communicate with people. Children every day are persuaded by online "friends" to meet them or do things for them that put them at great risk.

Important Facts About The Internet

The country of China has dedicated treatment facilities for people that are addicted to the internet.

There is high speed internet access the entire way up Mount Everest.

The very first website on the internet went live on August 6, 1991.

Over 30% of all websites on the internet are pornography.

On average, a person spends 12 percent of their entire life on the internet.

Author Biography
Keith Miller has over 25 years of experience as a CEO and serial entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, he has founded several multi-million dollar companies. As a writer, Keith's work has been mentioned in CIO Magazine, Workable, BizTech, and The Charlotte Observer. If you have any questions about the content of this blog post, then please send our content editing team a message here.

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The world wide web, or the internet, is a piece of technology that has revolutionized the entire world. The way that we think, conduct business, communicate, and entertain ourselves have all changed thanks to the internet.

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https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/four-ways-the-web-has-changed-our-lives-and-will-shape-our-future/

1. Inclusion on the web will determine our opportunities in life
2. Trust and transparency on the web will determine our values
3. The web will increasingly influence our safety and wellbeing
4. The way the web works will shape how we see the world – and how we organize ourselves in society

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4 ways the web has changed our lives – and will shape our future

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As the world wide web turns 30, we are only just beginning to realise its potential – for good and bad.

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https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/articles/internet-changed-everyday-life/

Education
+ providing unbounded possibilities for learning
+ is an inexhaustible source of information
+ students can work interactively with one another, unrestricted by physical or time constraints
+ wonderful tool for learning and practicing other languages
+ a vital tool for exchanging knowledge and education

Privacy and Security
+ privacy has become a must-have in our lives

Culture
+ Cultural globalization
+ vast fields of opportunity open up
+ bringing culture closer to more people
+ nurturing the rise of new forms of expression for art and the spread of knowledge

Personal Relationships
+ everyone is connected to everyone else in a simpler, more accessible, and more immediate way

Social and Political Activism
+ the better informed a citizen is, the more likely they will step into the polling booth, and the better they will express their political liberties.
+ has proved to be a decisive communication tool in election campaigns

Consumer Trends
+ offers an immense wealth of possibilities for buying content, news, and leisure products, and all sorts of advantages arise from e-commerce

THE ECONOMY
+ one of the key factors driving today’s economy
+ provides opportunities for strengthening the economy
++ e-commerce
++ personal Internet-related startup

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What Happened?

The Internet has turned our existence upside down. It has revolutionized communications, to the extent that it is now our preferred medium of everyday communication. In almost everything we do, we use the Internet. Ordering a pizza, buying a television, sharing a moment with a friend, sending a picture over instant messaging. Before the Internet, if you wanted to keep up with the news, you had to walk down to the newsstand when it opened in the morning and buy a local edition reporting what had happened the previous day. But today a click or two is enough to read your local paper and any news source from anywhere in the world, updated up to the minute.

The Internet itself has been transformed. In its early days-which from a historical perspective are still relatively recent-it was a static network designed to shuttle a small freight of bytes or a short message between two terminals; it was a repository of information where content was published and maintained only by expert coders. Today, however, immense quantities of information are uploaded and downloaded over this electronic leviathan, and the content is very much our own, for now we are all commentators, publishers, and creators.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Internet widened in scope to encompass the IT capabilities of universities and research centers, and, later on, public entities, institutions, and private enterprises from around the world. The Internet underwent immense growth; it was no longer a state-controlled project, but the largest computer network in the world, comprising over 50,000 sub-networks, 4 million systems, and 70 million users.

The emergence of web 2.0 in the first decade of the twenty-first century was itself a revolution in the short history of the Internet, fostering the rise of social media and other interactive, crowd-based communication tools.

The Internet was no longer concerned with information exchange alone: it was a sophisticated multidisciplinary tool enabling individuals to create content, communicate with one another, and even escape reality. Today, we can send data from one end of the world to the other in a matter of seconds, make online presentations, live in parallel "game worlds," and use pictures, video, sound, and text to share our real lives, our genuine identity. Personal stories go public; local issues become global.

The rise of the Internet has sparked a debate about how online communication affects social relationships. The Internet frees us from geographic fetters and brings us together in topic-based communities that are not tied down to any specific place. Ours is a networked, globalized society connected by new technologies. The Internet is the tool we use to interact with one another, and accordingly poses new challenges to privacy and security.

Information technologies have wrought fundamental change throughout society, driving it forward from the industrial age to the networked era. In our world, global information networks are vital infrastructure-but in what ways has this changed human relations? The Internet has changed business, education, government, healthcare, and even the ways in which we interact with our loved ones-it has become one of the key drivers of social evolution.

The changes in social communication are of particular significance. Although analogue tools still have their place in some sectors, new technologies are continuing to gain ground every day, transforming our communication practices and possibilities-particularly among younger people. The Internet has removed all communication barriers. Online, the conventional constraints of space and time disappear and there is a dizzyingly wide range of communicative possibilities. The impact of social media applications has triggered discussion of the "new communication democracy."

The development of the Internet today is being shaped predominantly by instant, mobile communications. The mobile Internet is a fresh revolution. Comprehensive Internet connectivity via smartphones and tablets is leading to an increasingly mobile reality: we are not tied to any single specific device, and everything is in the cloud.

People no longer spend hours gazing at a computer screen after work or class; instead, they use their mobile devices to stay online everywhere, all the time.

Anyone failing to keep abreast of this radical change is losing out on an opportunity.

Communication Opportunities Created by the Internet

The Internet has become embedded in every aspect of our day-to-day lives, changing the way we interact with others. This insight struck me when I started out in the world of social media. I created my first social network in 2005, when I was finishing college in the United States-it had a political theme. I could already see that social media were on the verge of changing our way of communicating, helping us to share information by opening up a new channel that cuts across conventional ones.

That first attempt did not work out, but I learned from the experience.I get the feeling that in many countries failure is punished too harshly-but the fact is, the only surefire way of avoiding failure is to do nothing at all. I firmly believe that mistakes help you improve; getting it wrong teaches you how to get it right. Creativity, hard work, and a positive attitude will let you achieve any goal.

In 2006, after I moved to Spain, I created Tuenti. Tuenti (which, contrary to widespread belief, has nothing to do with the number 20; it is short for "tu entidad," the Spanish for "your entity") is a social communication platform for genuine friends. From the outset, the idea was to keep it simple, relevant, and private. That's the key to its success.

I think the real value of social media is that you can stay in touch from moment to moment with the people who really matter to you. Social media let you share experiences and information; they get people and ideas in touch instantly, without frontiers. Camaraderie, friendship, and solidarity-social phenomena that have been around for as long as humanity itself-have been freed from the conventional restrictions of space and time and can now thrive in a rich variety of ways.

Out of all the plethora of communication opportunities that the Internet has opened up, I would highlight the emergence of social media and the way they have intricately melded into our daily lives. Social media have changed our personal space, altering the way we interact with our loved ones, our friends, and our sexual partners; they have forced us to rethink even basic daily processes like studying and shopping; they have affected the economy by nurturing the business startup culture and electronic commerce; they have even given us new ways to form broad-based political movements.

The Internet and Education

The Internet has clearly impacted all levels of education by providing unbounded possibilities for learning. I believe the future of education is a networked future. People can use the Internet to create and share knowledge and develop new ways of teaching and learning that captivate and stimulate students' imagination at any time, anywhere, using any device. By connecting and empowering students and educators, we can speed up economic growth and enhance the well-being of society throughout the world. We should work together, over a network, to build the global learning society.

The network of networks is an inexhaustible source of information. What's more, the Internet has enabled users to move away from their former passive role as mere recipients of messages conveyed by conventional media to an active role, choosing what information to receive, how, and when. The information recipient even decides whether or not they want to stay informed.

We have moved on from scattergun mass communication to a pattern where the user proactively selects the information they need.

Students can work interactively with one another, unrestricted by physical or time constraints. Today, you can use the Internet to access libraries, encyclopedias, art galleries, news archives, and other information sources from anywhere in the world: I believe this is a key advantage in the education field. The web is a formidable resource for enhancing the process of building knowledge.

I also believe the Internet is a wonderful tool for learning and practicing other languages-this continues to be a critical issue in many countries, including Spain, and, in a globalized world, calls for special efforts to improve.

The Internet, in addition to its communicative purposes, has become a vital tool for exchanging knowledge and education; it is not just an information source, or a locus where results can be published, it is also a channel for cooperating with other people and groups who are working on related research topics.

The Internet and Privacy and Security

Another key issue surrounding Internet use is privacy. Internet users are becoming more sensitive to the insight that privacy is a must-have in our lives.

Privacy has risen near the top of the agenda in step with an increasing awareness of the implications of using social media. Much of the time, people started to use social media with no real idea of the dangers, and have wised up only through trial and error-sheer accident, snafus, and mistakes. Lately, inappropriate use of social media seems to hit the headlines every day. Celebrities posting inappropriate comments to their profiles, private pictures and tapes leaked to the Internet at large, companies displaying arrogance toward users, and even criminal activities involving private-data trafficking or social media exploitation.

All this shows that-contrary to what many people seem to have assumed-online security and privacy are critical, and, I believe, will become even more important going forward. And, although every user needs privacy, the issue is particularly sensitive for minors-despite attempts to raise their awareness, children still behave recklessly online.

I have always been highly concerned about privacy. On Tuenti, the default privacy setting on every user account is the highest available level of data protection. Only people the user has accepted as a "friend" can access their personal details, see their telephone number, or download their pictures. This means that, by default, user information is not accessible to third parties. In addition, users are supported by procedures for reporting abuse. Any user can report a profile or photograph that is abusive, inappropriate, or violates the terms of use: action is taken immediately. Security and privacy queries are resolved within 24 hours.

We need to be aware that different Internet platforms provide widely different privacy experiences. Some of them are entirely open and public; no steps whatsoever are taken to protect personal information, and all profiles are indexable by Internet search engines.

On the other hand, I think the debate about whether social media use should be subject to an age requirement is somewhat pointless, given that most globally active platforms operate without age restrictions. The European regulatory framework is quite different from the United States and Asian codes. Companies based in Europe are bound by rigorous policies on privacy and underage use of social media. This can become a competitive drawback when the ground rules do not apply equally to all players-our American and Japanese competitors, for instance, are not required to place any kind of age constraint on access.

Outside the scope of what the industry or regulators can do, it is vital that users themselves look after the privacy of their data. I believe the information is the user's property, so the user is the only party entitled to control the collection, use, and disclosure of any information about him or herself. Some social networks seem to have forgotten this fact-they sell data, make it impossible to delete an account, or make it complex and difficult to manage one's privacy settings. Everything should be a lot simpler and more transparent.

Social networks should continue to devote intense efforts to developing self-regulation mechanisms and guidelines for this new environment of online coexistence to ensure that user information is safe: the Internet should be a space for freedom, but also for trust. The main way of ensuring that social media are used appropriately is awareness. But awareness and user education will be of little use unless it becomes an absolute requirement that the privacy of the individual is treated as a universal value.

The Internet and Culture

As in the sphere of education, the development of information and communication technologies and the wide-ranging effects of globalization are changing what we are, and the meaning of cultural identity. Ours is a complex world in which cultural flows across borders are always on the rise. The concepts of space, time, and distance are losing their conventional meanings. Cultural globalization is here, and a global movement of cultural processes and initiatives is underway.

Again, in the cultural arena, vast fields of opportunity open up thanks to online tools. The possibilities are multiplied for disseminating a proposal, an item of knowledge, or a work of art. Against those doomsayers who warn that the Internet is harming culture, I am radically optimistic. The Internet is bringing culture closer to more people, making it more easily and quickly accessible; it is also nurturing the rise of new forms of expression for art and the spread of knowledge. Some would say, in fact, that the Internet is not just a technology, but a cultural artifact in its own right.

In addition to its impact on culture itself, the Internet is enormously beneficial for innovation, which brings progress in all fields of endeavor-the creation of new goods, services, and ideas, the advance of knowledge and society, and increasing well-being.

The Internet and Personal Relationships

The Internet has also changed the way we interact with our family, friends, and life partners. Now everyone is connected to everyone else in a simpler, more accessible, and more immediate way; we can conduct part of our personal relationships using our laptops, smart phones, and tablets.

The benefits of always-online immediate availability are highly significant. I would find a long-distance relationship with my life partner or my family unthinkable without the communication tools that the network of networks provides me with. I'm living in Madrid, but I can stay close to my brother in California. For me, that is the key plus of the Internet: keeping in touch with the people who really matter to me.

As we have seen, the Internet revolution is not just technological; it also operates at a personal level, and throughout the structure of society. The Internet makes it possible for an unlimited number of people to communicate with one another freely and easily, in an unrestricted way.

Just a century ago, this was unimaginable. An increasing number of couples come together, stay together, or break up with the aid-or even as a consequence-of social communication tools. There are even apps and social networks out there that are purposely designed to help people get together for sex.

Of course, when compared to face-to-face communication, online communication is severely limited in the sense impressions it can convey (an estimated 60 to 70 percent of human communication takes place nonverbally), which can lead to misunderstandings and embarrassing situations-no doubt quite a few relationships have floundered as a result. I think the key is to be genuine, honest, and real at all times, using all the social media tools and their many advantages. Let's just remember that a liar and a cheat online is a liar and a cheat offline too.

The Internet and Social and Political Activism

Even before the emergence of social media, pioneering experiments took place in the political sphere-like Essembly, a project I was involved in. We started to create a politically themed platform to encourage debate and provide a home for social and political causes; but the social networks that have later nurtured activism in a new way were not as yet in existence.

Research has shown that young people who voice their political opinions on the Internet are more inclined to take part in public affairs. The better informed a citizen is, the more likely they will step into the polling booth, and the better they will express their political liberties. The Internet has proved to be a decisive communication tool in the latest election campaigns. It is thanks to the Internet that causes in the social, welfare, ideological, and political arenas have been spoken up for and have won the support of other citizens sharing those values-in many cases, with a real impact on government decision making.

The Internet and Consumer Trends

New technologies increase the speed of information transfer, and this opens up the possibility of "bespoke" shopping. The Internet offers an immense wealth of possibilities for buying content, news, and leisure products, and all sorts of advantages arise from e-commerce, which has become a major distribution channel for goods and services. You can book airline tickets, get a T-shirt from Australia, or buy food at an online grocery store. New applications support secure business transactions and create new commercial opportunities.

In this setting, it is the consumer who gains the upper hand, and the conventional rules and methods of distribution and marketing break down. Consumers' access to information multiplies, and their reviews of their experience with various products and services take center stage. Access to product comparisons and rankings, user reviews and comments, and recommendations from bloggers with large followings have shaped a new scenario for consumer behavior, retail trade, and the economy in general.

The Internet and the Economy

The Internet is one of the key factors driving today's economy. No one can afford to be left behind. Even in a tough macroeconomic framework, the Internet can foster growth, coupled with enhanced productivity and competitiveness.

The Internet provides opportunities for strengthening the economy: How should we tackle them? While Europe-and Spain specifically-are making efforts to make the best possible use of the Internet, there are areas in which their approach needs to improve. Europe faces a major challenge, and risks serious failure if it lets the United States run ahead on its own. The European Commission, in its "Startup Manifesto," suggests that the Old World be more entrepreneur-friendly-the proposal is backed by companies like Spotify and Tuenti. Europe lacks some of the necessary know-how. We need to improve in financial services and in data privacy, moving past the obsolete regulatory framework we now have and making a bid to achieve a well-connected continent with a single market for 4G mobile connections. We need to make it easier to hire talent outside each given country.

The use of e-commerce should be encouraged among small and medium-sized enterprises so that growth opportunities can be exploited more intensely. Following the global trend of the Internet, companies should internalize their online business. And much more emphasis should be placed on new technologies training in the academic and business spheres.

Modern life is global, and Spain is competing against every other country in the world. I do not believe in defeatism or victim culture. Optimism should not translate into callousness, but I sincerely believe that if you think creatively, if you find a different angle, if you innovate with a positive attitude and without fear of failure, then you can change things for the better. Spain needs to seize the moment to reinvent itself, grasping the opportunities offered up by the online world. We need to act, take decisions, avoid "paralysis through analysis." I sometimes feel we are too inclined to navel-gazing: Spain shuts itself off, fascinated with its own contradictions and local issues, and loses its sense of perspective. Spain should open up to the outside, use the crisis as an opportunity to do things differently, in a new way-creating value, underlining its strengths, aspiring to be something more.

In the United States, for instance, diving headfirst into a personal Internet-related startup is regarded as perfectly normal. I'm glad to see that this entrepreneurial spirit is beginning to take hold here as well. I believe in working hard, showing perseverance, keeping your goals in view, surrounding yourself with talent, and taking risks. No risk, no success. We live in an increasingly globalized world: of course you can have a Spain-based Internet startup, there are no frontiers.

We need to take risks and keep one step ahead of the future. It is precisely the most disruptive innovations that require radical changes in approach and product, which might not even find a market yet ready for them-these are the areas providing real opportunities to continue being relevant, to move forward and "earn" the future, creating value and maintaining leadership. It is the disruptive changes that enable a business, product, or service to revolutionize the market-and, particularly in the technology sector, such changes are a necessity.

The Future of Social Communications, Innovation, Mobile Technologies, and Total Connectivity in Our Lives

The future of social communications will be shaped by an always-online culture. Always online is already here and will set the trend going forward. Total connectivity, the Internet you can take with you wherever you go, is growing unstoppably. There is no turning back for global digitalization.

Innovation is the driving force of growth and progress, so we need to shake up entrenched processes, products, services, and industries, so that all of us together-including established businesses, reacting to their emerging competitors-can move forward together.

Innovation is shaping and will continue to shape the future of social communications. It is already a reality that Internet connections are increasingly mobile. A survey we conducted in early 2013 in partnership with Ipsos found that 94 percent of Tuenti users aged 16 to 35 owned cell phones, 84 percent of users connected to the Internet using their phones, and 47 percent had mobile data subscriptions for connecting to the Internet. A total of 74 percent of users reported connecting to the Internet from their phone on a daily basis, while 84 percent did so at least weekly. Only 13 percent did not use their phones to connect to the Internet, and that percentage is decreasing every day.

Mobile Internet use alters the pattern of device usage; the hitherto familiar ways of accessing the Internet are changing too. The smartphone activities taking up the most time (over three hours a day) include instant messaging (38%), social media use (35%), listening to music (24%), and web browsing (20%). The activities taking up the least time (under five minutes a day) are: SMS texting (51%), watching movies (43%), reading and writing e-mail (38%), and talking on the phone (32%). Things are still changing.

Smartphones are gaining ground in everyday life. Many of the purposes formerly served by other items now involve using our smartphones. Some 75 percent of young people reported having replaced their MP3 player with their phone, 74 percent use their phone as an alarm clock, 70 percent use it as their camera, and 67 percent use it as their watch.

We have been observing these shifts for a while, which is why we decided to reinvent ourselves by placing smartphones at the heart of our strategy. I want to use this example as a showcase of what is happening in the world of social communication and the Internet in general: mobile connectivity is bringing about a new revolution. Tuenti is no longer just a social network, and social media as a whole are becoming more than just websites. The new Tuenti provides native mobile apps for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Phone, as well as the Firefox OS app and the mobile version of the website, m.tuenti.com. Tuenti is now a cross-platform service that lets users connect with their friends and contacts from wherever they may be, using their device of choice. A user with a laptop can IM in real time with a user with a smartphone, and switch from one device to another without losing the thread of the conversation. The conversations are in the cloud, so data and contacts are preserved independently of the devices being used. This means the experience has to be made uniform across platforms, which sometimes involves paring down functionalities, given the processing and screen size limitations of mobile devices. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and so on are all evolving to become increasingly cross-platform experiences. But Tuenti is the first social network that has also developed its own Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)-the company is an Internet service provider over the mobile network. Tuenti is an MVNO with a social media angle, and this may be the future path of telecommunications.

Social media are evolving to become something more, and innovation must be their hallmark if they are to continue being relevant. Tuenti now embraces both social communications and telecom services provision, offering value added by letting you use the mobile app free of charge and without using up your data traffic allowance, even if you have no credit on your prepaid card-this is wholly revolutionary in the telecom sector. The convergence of social media with more traditional sectors is already bringing about a new context for innovation, a new arena for the development and growth of the Internet.

Just about everything in the world of the Internet still lies ahead of us, and mobile communications as we know them must be reinvented by making them more digital. The future will be shaped by innovation converging with the impact of mobility. This applies not just to social media but to the Internet in general, particularly in the social communications field. I feel that many people do not understand what we are doing and have no idea of the potential development of companies like ours at the global level. Right now, there may be somebody out there, in some corner of the world, developing the tool that will turn the Internet upside down all over again. The tool that will alter our day-to-day life once more. Creating more opportunities, providing new benefits to individuals, bringing more individual and collective well-being. Just ten years ago, social media did not exist; in the next ten years, something else radically new will emerge. There are many areas in which products, processes, and services can be improved or created afresh. The future is brimming with opportunities, and the future of the Internet has only just begun.

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How the Internet Has Changed Everyday Life | OpenMind

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The Internet has dramatically revolutionized many different fields. It has become a global means of communication in our everyday lives.