Analytical Internet as a Social Trend and Its Role in Society

I am writing this analytical essay identifying, a current social trend that has been influenced by history which is the internet. I will then be discussing and analysing, how and why this is important in our society. 

The current trend now, is the use of the internet which can be found and used on most devises. The use of the internet has gone through the ceiling, since it started in 1989 in Australia. I think this is good to have the internet, as we can be in contact with our family and friends that don’t live close and or in another country. I am happy with this trend as I am in constant contact with my family, who is living in another country and being able to see my nieces and nephews whom I have never met. If we never had the internet, I would not be able to be in contact with my family and other relations. 

89% of Australians have the internet and only 11% of households that don’t have the internet, as this was recorded in 2010. 77% of the internet was used in households, 40% were from people who work and 15% was used in the library and universities. You can also see the breakdown of what is being searched for and used. In 2018, 2,167 million was using Facebook, which was the highest social media being used. YouTube had 1,500 million users which was the second highest. By the year 2020 over 5 billion people in Australia will be using the internet. Over half of these will be reading this on their handheld devices such as mobiles, tablets or computers. ‘There will be 80 billion connected devices worldwide. This connectivity will spread to our daily lives bringing the three storage towers of work, home and our surrounding environment’. 

Researches show the increase of the internet since the start of 2000. It’s been 30 years since Australia first became connected to the internet. This technological breakthrough has had a long development and is still growing. The internet usage in 2012 was six million households more than businesses. The households that use the internet in 2012 is ten million people compared to businesses which is only two million people. This is a big thing considering in 2010 it was used in work places, libraries and universities and not in the household. In two years, it came more and more used in the household as it has become more affordable and high schools were using it more in the curriculum and then the teenagers were in the need to use it at home for school work. In Forbes.com under Top 10 mega trends it states, ‘Connected living will involve digital assistants that guide our everyday lives, music that seamlessly moves from our homes to cars as soon as we shut the house door to our house to start our commute as everything will sit in a cloud that we can access anywhere anytime. A new range of technology enables services, such as smart lighting, mobile working solutions, and smart power will define and shape our everyday experiences. This connectivity will push other sub trends, like big data to create market opportunities for new products and services; some that already here today, like social sentiment analysis, open innovation, new insurance business models and micro personalized marketing and medicines.’ 

You can also see, that the estimated total number of Internet subscribers in Australia increased from an estimated 3.8 million in June 2000 to 12.1 million in 2012 — more than tripling in 12 years. In 2003, when these numbers were first collected, almost 90% of connections were dial-up, but broadband first exceeded dial-up in 2006 and by 2012 the devastating percentage of the more than 12 million Internet connections were broadband. An average people spend 5 hours 34 mins just searching things, 1 hour 39 mins texting whether it’s on messenger or other aps, 3 hours and 1 min watching shows whether that’s Netflix, Stan or catch up, and only 42 mins listening to music. This was during a study in January 2018. When internet first came out in America it was very expensive and now you have many different providers that you can choose from as well as many different costs and packages. Since the figures came out in 2018 the numbers of users or the amount of time we spend on the internet, whether it’s watching shows, searching things, texting, messaging and listening to music, would be a lot higher as more people have devices and the access to the internet more than before. It is easily accessible and getting a lot cheaper than a year ago. 

The internet is accessed by many different ages even as young as 3-4 years of age. These young children know their way around the internet better than most adults. Pregnancy Birth Baby states, ‘Today's children are connected to the world in many ways. Children use computers, tablets and mobile phones to play games, browse on the web and access social media sites. The challenge is to help your child enjoy the benefits of the internet while avoiding the risks. The Department of Health recommends that: Children younger than 2 should not spend any time watching television or using other electronic media. Children aged 2 to 5 should spend less than one hour a day watching a screen. Children aged 5 to 17 years should spend less than 2 hours a day watching a screen’. We need to inspire our child/ren to engage in a varied range of activities that keeps them full of life, to build physical, social skills, and activities that stimulate their thinking and creativity. Older internet users are less likely to view the internet as a positive for society. The older generation uses the internet for online shopping, internet searches and online dating. Millennials use main technology approval measures, but Boomers and Gen Xers are also heavy users of social media, online shopping and online dating. A survey was done in January 2018 stating that, 26% of people born before 1945, 46% of people born between 1946 – 1964, 75% people born between 1965-1980, 82% people born between 1981-1996 say they all use Facebook. 

In conclusion I agree with the way the internet is going, as I can contact my family and relatives who lives in another country and able to download photos and information on what they are doing now. I like the fact that I can have it on my mobile phone so if I’m not near a computer I can still get updates and emails. The teenagers of today’s society can’t live without the internet or their devises. The teenagers would also be very lost if the internet went down and you couldn’t access Facebook, Instagram, twitter or dating sites. A lot of people cannot live without the access of the internet on any devices now. A lot of young people don’t even know what it would be like to not have the internet or even the devices to use them when they don’t have a computer to use.