The Internet was originally designed in 1989 as a tool for the European science agency CERN to help share information among physicist in universities around the world. On April 30th, 1993, the Internet went public. Back in 1993, Internet founders like Tim Berners-Lee did not likely realize that his invention would solve more problems than physics ever could.
To honor of the Internet's 20th birthday, let us look back to the problems we all faced in 1993. With this exercise, we will show how the Internet has taken care of many hardships that made living in the 90's so difficult. Here are the top five 90's problems taken from the popular meme series "90's Problems" that the Internet has solved.
I bought the CD because I liked the single and the rest of the album is terrible.
Thanks to the Internet, you have the ability to download that one catchy song stuck in your head without having to wade through the 12 other songs the artist worked hard on. In fact, the Internet has revolutionized the music industry. Bands are less dependent on record companies to make and promote music, and social media can be utilized so artist can connect with fans. Music lovers around the world have the ability to no longer be dependent upon the radio to find new music, and a simple Google search of your favorite musical genre will yield you new and exciting finds that would never be played on the radio.
Blockbuster has already rented their copy of Groundhog Day and there's no other way to see it.
The Internet gives us the ability to instantly download or stream any TV show or movie that we are in the mood to see. This is great for movie fans, but bad for the movie industry and video rental stores like Blockbuster (RIP). DVD sales have been steadily slipping for the past 10 years, and Hollywood has reacted by unsuccessfully trying to put a stop to online movie piracy and file sharing. No matter what your opinion is about copyright laws, you have to admit that it is nice to never again walk away from a movie rental store disappointed.
My TV guide didn't come this month so I don't know what's on TV right now.
The Internet has solved this problem in two ways: 1) you can easily go online to find the TV schedule, and 2) you can now watch all of your television over the Internet. In fact, a current trend that is sending cable companies scrambling is that more people are unsubscribing and watching all of their television exclusively online.
I perfectly timed taping of my favorite song on the radio, but the Disc Jockey talked all the way through the last few seconds.
Before the Internet gave us easy ways to illegally download music, we had to use a blank cassette tape, a boom box, and listen closely to the radio after calling in our request. We at National Technologies Group do not condone illegal downloading of music, but we have to admit that downloading any form of media over the Internet makes things easier than it used to be back in 90's.
I have to do a school report but I hate going to the library.
Before there was Wikipedia, we had encyclopedias. Today, thanks to the Internet, the only use people have for a set of encyclopedias is for trendy home decorating. While the Internet will never fully replace your local library, it does make researching all fields of knowledge from your home PC incredibly easy.
National Technologies Group would like to wish the Internet a happy 20th birthday, and we look forward to being on the frontlines of using the Internet to solve the world's most pressing problems during the next 20 years!
