The internet transforms modern life
By Steve Almasy CNN Wednesday, June 29, 2005
(CNN) — In 1994, most people had to call the bank to check their balances. Or inquire in person, or wait for a paper statement to arrive in the mail. Baseball box scores were found in the newspaper. Weather forecasts came over the phone from the weather bureau, or on TV. Back then, most Americans still had to lick a stamp to send mail. Then along came an experimental browser called Mosaic, followed by an improved browser from Netscape. And if you had a computer, you discovered a new way to this cool, new thing called the World Wide Web. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, fewer than one in seven Americans were online in 1995. Today, the majority of Americans are surfing the Web, exchanging e-mail, reading bank statements and ball scores, checking the weather. Today, two out of every three Americans spend time online. The audience for the Web numbers more than one billion and is growing. And they are just having more of their needs filled, whether it’s travel, shopping and all these other activities that didn’t exist to the same degree in the early days of the Web. A decade from now, who knows what statistics and functions they’ll be measuring.
Ten years ago who could have imagined getting a satellite image of Nantucket? Today the web has become a vital tool for listing and selling real estate on Nantucket and it will only get more exciting.
Read the full Internet transforms modern life article from CNN.com to learn more.
