Back To The Books: Technically Speaking

"Want to lose 25 pounds? Buy our new product and do just that!" "Click here for a free I-pod!" "Are you a good kisser? Take our kissing quiz and receive $1000!" Now when was the last time you were reading a book and one of these popped up and made noises at you? Personally, I can't recall the last time it happened. Why is that you ask? Because a good encyclopedia, dictionary, or just plain novel doesn't run on electricity and isn't open to the entire population for implementation of viruses. According to the Complete Idiot's Guide to Books, books have been around since 3500 B.C. in the time of Sumerian rule. Sumerians used cuneiform alphabet, pressed in clay with a triangular stylus. Clay tablets were dried and/or lit on fire for longevity. Some even had clay envelopes, which were also inscribed. Some people consider them to be the earliest form of the book. According to Funk and Wagnall's New Encyclopedia, Volume 14, the Internet in which we use today was created in 1989. While reading a recent T.V. Guide, I found that 69% of the United States population relies on the Internet for some part of their life. This is not only a bad thing, but also a distraction from the actual lifesaver. Books: are they a thing of the past or do we still realize that they are just as useful as a computer? In order to answer this question, we must first look at the history of the Internet and how it overcame books.

The Internet was the result of some visionary thinking by people in the early 1960's that saw great potential value in allowing computers to share information on research and development in scientific and military fields, according to the book, Internet and Its Many Uses. J.C.R. Licklider of MIT, first proposed a global network of computers in 1962, and moved over to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in late 1962 to head the work to develop it. Leonard Kleinrock of MIT and later UCLA developed the theory of packet switching, which was to form the basis of Internet connections. Lawrence Roberts of MIT connected a Massachusetts computer with a California computer in 1965 over dial-up telephone lines. It showed the feasibility of wide area networking, but also showed that the telephone line's circuit switching was inadequate. Kleinrock's packet switching theory was confirmed. Roberts moved over to DARPA in 1966 and developed his plan for ARPANET. These visionaries and many more left unnamed here are the real founders of the Internet. The Internet soon swept over the world in a whirlwind of people of all ages. The only problem is, I stated earlier that the founders of the Internet "saw great potential value in allowing computers to share information on research and development in scientific and military fields," not every day use. Either way, we still use the Internet for our every day uses but it was not supposed to be that way. As the years went on and we reached the year of the 1995, the Internet was filling the homes of people at a rate of 467 houses per day, reports the September 7, 1995 edition of Reader's Digest. As the years continue on, a magazine called, Teacher's Union, reports in its March, 2001 edition that 76% of schools have the Internet and use them in their class assignments and attendance counting. Of course, the students still work from textbooks and read books for book reports, but the fact still remains that the Internet is taking over, and in many ways.

One of the most obvious ways is something called E-mail. In the times of the Sumerians, Julius Caesar, the Civil War, the Roaring Twenties, and even in the time of my father's high school period, E-mail did not exist and other means were used. In my younger years when I wanted to write to somebody, I used a pen and some paper. In today's society, whenever I do a school project at home, I usually e-mail it to myself in case I lose it or something happens to it. On numerous occasions, my printer at home would not work and I would rely on my e-mail to let me print it at school. When I arrived at school, I found that the e-mail would not open and I wouldn't be able to print it off. Now, you are probably thinking, "Then why didn't you just write it out?" There are several reasons: first, I have really bad handwriting, but, second, that just proves my point. I relied too much on the computer and the Internet to get my work done and something happened. Not so perfect, is it?

A second way the Internet has taken over is its role in research. I am a debater at my school and I can honestly tell you that over 95% of our evidence comes from the Internet. In the year 1988, before the Internet was available to us, how did the debate team at Lansing High School get their evidence? Books. Magazines. Not the Internet. So if the debaters in 1988 could get evidence without the Internet, why can't we? We can, it's just that we feel the need to get things done faster, or we sometimes feel that it is better, which it is not.

A third way it has taken over is the