Past, Present and Future of the Internet

I was in Grade 10 when the Internet was just getting main stream.  I remember getting my first email address at university 2 years later.  It was very weird – some strange code with an “@” symbol.  I hardly used it for anything.  But going online and seeing websites for the first time was addictive right away.  All the things/subjects you had a love for could now be accessed anytime – as long as your dial-up connection was reasonably fast.  I remember downloading pictures of my favorite cartoon/anime characters at a friends house that had internet unto a floppy and then uploading them to my computer at home (where I did not have internet).  Well that was the romance of the early years.

What the Internet has become (as of 2020)

One word: Money.  The internet has become a place to make money.  Lots of money and the faster the better.  Some will say:  It always was like that.  To that I say:  Maybe, but not to the extend it has progressed to.  It is now all-encompassing.  Advertising has multiplied by a factor of 10 over the last 10 years alone.  Where once average people had a small website of their favorite subject (a computer game or TV show, perhaps) there now is a tremendous horde of websites showing god knows what to attract as many people as possible to make as much money as possible on the advertisements cluttered throughout the site.  It has become hard to distinguish what is original website material and what is advertising material as in many instances the commercials outrank the website material in volume.

Personal Know-How of the Internet

I have a few websites myself – none of which have a single advertisement on it.  I have not sold myself, yet.  I have to do SEO (search engine optimization) for my business sites in order to get a decent rank in the search engines, so I have a good understanding how it all works these days.  When I read articles or any kind of info on the internet these days I cringe.  99% of all that is written these days only serves ONE purpose:  Drive traffic to some website and increase the rank of that website in the process – plus also make money of the advertising that is dispersed throughout the article.  It is sickening when you really understand what is happening.  The is almost no single piece of information out there these days that is written purely to inform.  Everything that is published online these days has the taste of “having an agenda”.

A look into the Future

The future of the Internet is bleak.  I do not know how many more commercials and advertisements can be shown on any one website at one time.  But I am sure it can be more.  Maybe we will get 2 minutes of commercials before a 5 second youtube video soon.  Maybe we will have to pay money to have someone remove these advertisements if we do not want to see them anymore (oh wait, that is already in place).  Maybe people will have to pay google for their website even to show up on their platform.  It all boils down to the greed of man.  If there is an opportunity to make money most will do anything it takes no matter what it leads to.

Author:  Owner of Tilt and Turn Windows Vancouver , Frameless Doors, Invisible Doors, Tilt and Turn Windows Canada