The Internet paved the way for today’s greatest inventions, discoveries and even breaking into our past and history. Most of us nowadays heavily rely on the internet to learn new things, connect with other people, and learn the history of almost every topic you can think of. Before the discovery of the internet, we heavily relied on books and other references to gain knowledge. Back in the day, written or printed references were commonly used especially by the students who were working on their schoolwork. These references come in different forms and sizes. In some countries like the Philippines, there are like 3ft long charts used by teachers and students during their discussions. Nostalgic as it is, everyone has their fair share of memories spent in public or school libraries where we spent time with our friends or alone reading good books. Most of the time, we go to these kinds of places for paperwork and sometimes, just to really sit down and read a good book along with our favorite snacks, if allowed. Many of us are still fans of reading books and doing research in libraries. For some, they find this way of learning more effective rather than browsing the net. Before, if you want to do your paperwork, you really need a pile of books to really work on what you need to accomplish. Now, with just a few clicks, the answers you’re looking for will be there in front of you in less than a minute or two. Before online streaming was available, many of us would really have to go to movie houses to watch our favorite shows. Now, with a good internet connection, all you have to do is to either download or stream and watch at home at your most convenient time. Back then if we wanted to communicate with our loved ones or friends, we wrote them a letter or used a classic telephone just to talk to them but now, we already have social media. This platform offered a lot of options to connect and communicate with other people all over the world. You can do simple chat, video call, or Facetime, upload and send photos and even watch their every movement through a surveillance camera connected to the internet. A lot of things have changed and along with these changes are its advantages and disadvantages. Some people do not find the internet to be a good innovation because somehow it removed the part of real and genuine human connection. Some find it helpful and convenient since they no longer need to spend money and effort in traveling just to say hi to their friends or family. It really depends on how you see these inventions but at the end of the day, we can’t deny the fact that the internet made our living more advanced and progressive. Compared with our lives 50 years from now, it wasn’t that easy to learn new things or communicate with other people. Our lives now became more fast-paced and in a way, most of us, if not all, find this generation a better one to live in. There are a lot of things you can do now because of the internet. Browsing became easier not just because of the internet. Along with this, the World Wide Web, or simply the Web also led us to many discoveries. The World Wide Web is a database enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed and readily available anytime over the internet to its audience. Admit it or not, this is also one of the many great inventions we really like since it helped us a lot in so many different aspects. This enabled us to access almost everything through our computers or mobile devices. Files, documents, and downloadable media were made accessible to the public for free. Web browsers are used to access almost all kinds of files you may need. The World Wide Web has been recognized as the world’s superior software platform. In this case, the main and primary tool billions of people all over the world leverages to interact, do business, and share data. It was originally created as a document management system or as simple as a database by Tim Berners-Lee. He invented this in 1989 and it became open to the public in the year 1991. The World Wide Web is a global information platform wherein users can access via computers connected to the internet. We often mistakenly think that the Internet is the same as the World Wide Web. Apparently, the Web is a service that operates over the internet. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web while working at CERN. He developed and improved the first web server, the first web browser, and a document formatting protocol, called HTML or Hypertext Markup Language which is more often heard and used in Information Technology and computer technology fields. After publishing the markup language in 1994 and making the browser source available to the public in 1993, many other web browsers were soon discovered and developed. Websites for public consumption and utilization began to emerge in 1994 at which time fierce competition also surfaced in this industry. The initial launch of the Web happened in January 1991 and the first web servers outside CERN were switched on. Berners-Lee published a short explanation of the World Wide Web project. Today, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the director of the W3C or the World Wide Web Consortium. The World Wide Web or simply the Web and Internet are two different things although we have a tendency of using them interchangeably. Web refers to a collection of files like animations, digital photos, files, music or audio files, text pages, etc. Meanwhile, the Internet, on the other hand, pertains to networking infrastructure responsible for connecting millions of computers and other devices all over the world. Therefore, the Web is essentially a subset of the Internet. Almost everyone is heavily dependent on online resources and in fact, there are more devices in this world that are connected to the Internet than the number of human beings living on Earth. The World Wide Web gained fast acceptance with the creation of a Web browser called Mosaic, which was developed in the United States by Marc Andreessen. Along with other developers, this was developed and was released in September 1993. Mosaic enabled people using the Web to use the same sort of “point-and-click” graphical manipulations that had been available in personal computers for some years. Andreessen co-founded Netscape Communications Corporation in April 1994, whose Netscape Navigator became the dominant and popular Web browser soon after its release in December 1994. BookLink Technologies’ InternetWorks was the first browser with tabs, in which a user could visit another website without opening an entirely new window that is currently available in almost all kinds of browsers, debuted that same year. By the mid-1990s the World Wide Web had millions of active users as it became accessible to the public. Many people really took advantage and a lot of innovations emerged with the help of the Web. Microsoft Corporation, which is known for being one of the most popular up to this date, became interested in supporting Internet applications on personal computers. They also developed their own Web browser inspired by Mosaic, Internet Explorer or IE, in 1995. This became an add-on to the Windows 95 operating system, and it was integrated into the Windows operating system in 1996. IE soon became the most popular Web browser in the market during this time. As the default browser on Macintosh personal computers and later iPhones (2007) and iPads (2010), Apple’s Safari was released and became available for these devices in 2003. Safari 2.0 was the first browser to offer a “privacy” mode. This enables its users to browse wherein the application would not save Web sites in its history, downloaded files in its cache, or personal information entered on Web pages especially if the topics you are browsing are quite confidential. Of course, there will always be competition in the market. Mozilla Firefox, released in 2004, was the first browser to compete and challenge IE’s dominance. It was designed to address issues with speed and security that had plagued IE. In 2008 Google launched Chrome. It was the first browser with isolated tabs, which was a new and novel idea: when one tab crashed, other tabs (and the whole browser would still function). Google’s Chrome had become the dominant and most popular browser in 2013, surpassing IE and Firefox in popularity and in terms of demand. Microsoft discontinued and ceased IE then and introduced Microsoft Edge in 2015. Early in the 21st century, smartphones grew in popularity, largely because they were becoming more and more like handheld computers. In fact, now you can do almost everything using your smartphone. It has more-advanced services such as Internet access wherein you can choose your preferred browser. Web usage on smartphones increased steadily. In 2016 it accounted for more than half of all Web browsing. So, who invented the smartphone? You may likely think it is Apple that gave birth to this amazing device. Many are surprised when they discover that, it is not. The first device that technically qualifies as a smartphone was simply a highly sophisticated brick phone. The first smartphone was invented by a team of engineers at IBM in 1994. Back then, it wasn’t called a smartphone on the get-go but instead, they called Simon Personal Communicator. This was the first phone to combine a touchscreen with a full keyboard and it also had built-in software that would allow its users to check their email, browse the internet, and make phone calls. In our ever-connected world, the smartphone is truly one of the most sophisticated inventions of all time. In 1996, the first phone to be able to connect to the internet was created. Since that time, phones have evolved from being “feature phones” with limited capabilities to smartphones that outshine other tech products in overall functionality, not to mention, bulky personal computers. Today’s smartphones are a far cry from what we know as cell phones or other older models because smartphones are more like handheld computers with cellular service. You can do almost everything on your smartphone. Smartphones now come in many different models, sizes, features, and specs readily available in the market or you can even order them online too. Just like other products of science and technology, smartphones also brought along certain disadvantages. People nowadays spend almost all their time with their faces in their phones, especially with social media. When people meet their friends or family for dinner, it is not uncommon to see that everyone is actually focused on their phones watching videos, chatting, listening to music, doing school or office work, etc. This reduces the human connection. Cyber-socializing has also changed how people date. Today, potential dating candidates will chat back and forth and get to know each other, sometimes for weeks or months, before meeting in person. While there are undeniable challenges and dangers with smartphone usage, we cannot deny the fact that they have also brought us great advantages. For example, for their size, the amount of computing power that smartphones pack would have been genuinely unimaginable to people even a decade prior to their invention. Even the older iPhones are quite literally millions of times more powerful than even the most complex computers used in the Apollo spacecraft. Smartphones are impressive in terms of data storage, and this creates a significant role in terms of complex computations. They are convenient to the point that no separate calculators are needed when solving mathematical computations. Smartphones can also help us stay organized. There are a lot of tools or applications we can download to manage our files, and calendars and it can even remind us of our next appointments or meetings. Sharing files is so easy using smartphones since the wireless transfer of photos, audio or videos is also available. Banking, shopping, paying your bills, and even groceries can be done through our smartphones. Gamers are also fans of great smartphones with advanced specs as more games are now available in smartphones than before, when they could only play their preferred games via computers. Book lovers also enjoy features like audiobooks and this allows them to have their books handy on their smartphones. GPS is one of the great functionalities smartphones offer. There are several excellent applications for navigation that will allow you to quickly locate the place especially when traveling. You’ll get directions whether you are a driver or a pedestrian. Because of this, you don’t have to go around asking strangers how to get somewhere. Many of the applications even display the traffic jam locations, so this will help you escape the mess and arrive more efficiently at your destination. Smartphones promote easier and more convenient transactions since there’s less effort and cost to do your daily tasks. As simple as shopping or preparing food for dinner. Tons of applications can be installed on our smartphones, and this has helped mankind evolve and made our lives simpler, and faster. Now that almost every transaction can be done online, people do not need to spend hours in line just to make transactions at the bank. We now have the option to process almost every type of bank transaction using our smartphones. Working and studying can now be done through smartphones too and when traveling, people no longer need to bring their computers or laptops since their work can be accessed on their smartphones. There are also employees now who are enjoying the luxury of traveling along with their work. Many are now doing freelance or online jobs and they have the liberty of still completing whatever they need to complete while on a vacation by either bringing their laptop or smartphones. There are numerous things you can do with smartphones. However, addiction is something we should be on the lookout for, as this can be harmful if not regulated or controlled by the individual or a responsible adult. Interesting games and social websites are available on smartphones that can contribute to addiction and most of these sites, especially those that are not safe for minors’ eyes. Kids nowadays are growing alongside their gadgets and study says that this causes them to lose compassion and genuine human connection as early as the age of 5. Uncensored content, for most countries, is not regulated. As a result, children can easily access inappropriate materials. This can affect a child’s health. Even in adults, it causes sleeping issues and other mild to critical illnesses like eye sore, migraine, etc. Smartphones have become an unhealthy replacement for actual human interaction. In the morning, several people wake up and check their phones first without greeting their family or loved ones. Soon, more and more inventions will be discovered and it’s up to us to determine how we will take advantage of these products of technology. It is important to know our limitations - especially for parents. It may be an easy way of making your kids behave but it also has risks to their physical, emotional, and mental health. At the end of the day, genuine human connection is something these inventions will have a hard time offering no matter how advanced the gadget is.