Wednesday, March 2, 2011

State of the Internet Issue #04: Internet Usage

How much time do we spend on the Internet these days? A look at the statistics will show developed nations are understandably the top Internet users. But what used to be a novelty is now a global dependence. The infrastructure providing internet access has ballooned as well. A look at the global internet usage will show the relationship of different countries and their connection to the Internet.

Electricity is key to the Internet. It's essential for the availability of the content and transfer of information from computer to computer. That is why the more developed countries are the top users of the Internet. They typically have the best electrical coverage.

Internetworldstats.com provided the information for the top users of the Internet; which is actually Asia with 825 million, and Europe with 475 million. North America used to be neck and neck with Asia back in 2000, with 108 million users to 114 million users.

Asian countries especially are showing strong Internet usage growth, because of their economic growth. For example Vietnam, now has over 27% of their population using the Internet. What that equates to is a population that is adapting to getting information from a different source than books.

The web is not only a way for people to get information, but it has become a way to organize and become connected to the rest of the world. As the usage has risen, countries like Egypt and Tunisia have used it to stage their political protests and to plea to the rest of the world for freedom. In fact, the Egyptian government had to disconnect the entire countries Internet access in order to prevent the civilians from disseminating their protest information to the rest of the world and organizing on facebook.

The way the people of Egypt has used the Internet for their revolution has changed the way people look at this powerful medium.

That is why the Internet usage increase globally has been a positive thing. Information dissemination now is important and also widely available to a lot of people. It's certainly a way for people to get access to all they might want to know and to stay in touch with other people in the world, making relationships that much more available.

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