What began as a largely technical and limited universe of designers and users

became one of the most important mediums of the late 20th and early 21st
centuries. As the Pew Charitable Trust observed in 2004, it took 46 years to
wire 30 percent of the United States for electricity; it took only 7 years for the
Internet to reach that same level of connection to American homes. By 2005,
68 percent of American adults and 90 percent of American teenagers had used
the Internet. Europe and Asia were at least as well connected as the United
States. Nearly half of the citizens of the European Union are online, and even
higher rates are found in the Scandinavian countries. There is a wide variance
in Asian countries; for example, by 2005 Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan had
at least half of their populations online, whereas India, Pakistan, and Vietnam
had less than 10 percent. South Korea was the world leader in connecting its
population to the Internet through high-speed broadband connections.
 BRITANNICA QUIZ

What Do You Actually Know About the Internet?

You’re using it right now. But you have to take this quiz to find out what you

actually know about the Internet.

Such statistics can chart the Internet’s growth, but they offer few insights into
the changes wrought as users—individuals, groups, corporations, and
governments—have embedded the technology into everyday life. The Internet
is now as much a lived experience as a tool for performing particular tasks,
offering the possibility of creating an environment or virtual reality in which
individuals might work, socially interact with others, and perhaps even live
out their lives.

History, community, and communications

Two agendas