1. The Internet and Social Media
Chapter 4

2. “The Internet
changes everything”
-Bill Gates

3. History of computing
• 1642: Adding machines were the first computers. French
mathematician Blaise Pascal invented the arithmetique – a
machine that could add numbers up to 1 million (he
invented it when he was 19).
• 1671: German mathemetician Gottfried Wilhelm von
Liebnitz explored binary arithmetic (which is the system
modern computers are based on).
• U.S. 1880s: Herman Hollerith invented a computer that
used punch cards and electrical circuits to do calculations.
He would later form the company International Business
Machines
• US 1940: Howard Aiken developed the first binary system
based computer at Harvard, a few years later ENIAC was
constructed

4. ENIAC: weighed two tons, was two stories high

6. History of computing
• 1950s: invention of transistors, integrated
circuits and silicon chips let to
smaller, cheaper, faster computers.
• 1970s: PCs for home and business use, with
prepackaged software emerges.
• 1980s: invention of the modem, development
of LANs
• 1990s: smaller computers, laptops, wireless
modems

7. History of computing
• 2000s: Portability is key.
Computers get smaller.
Advent of
netbooks, smartphones and
tablet computers.
• Current historical
contribution: Cloud
computing, loss of physical
media

8. History of the Internet
• What is the internet’s #1
priority and function?
COMMUNICATION
• 1957: USSR launches
Sputnik, in response the US
gov’t forms the Advanced
Research Projects Agency
(ARPA) in 1958
• Part of the Dept. of
Defense; established to get
the US in the lead in military
science and technology

9. ARPANET
• A need for decentralized communication
• Having information stored along
nodes, sharing packets
• If one node is destroyed, the information
(packets) are safely backed up in multiple
locations, communication is not disrupted
• Developed out of fear of the Cold War or
other global catastrophe

10. History of the Internet
• In 1969, four major nodes are connected to
ARPANET
• UCLA
• Stanford
• UC Santa Barbara
• University of Utah

11. History of the Internet
• At first, it was widely used for
academic research and
communication, and
development of the WWW as we
know it today was underway
• The first email was sent: 1972
• 1975: Newsgroups are a popular
form of communication
• 1977: UNIX operating system is
developed
• 1978: TCP/IP specifications are
made
• 1979: first use of emoticons :-)

12. History of the Internet
• 1984: the internet starts being used in
businesses and colleges/universities; Domain
Name Systems (DNS) are created
• 1989: ARPANET project is decommissioned
• 1989: term WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW) is
coined by Tim Berners-Lee
• 1990: The World is the first dial-up
service, and the WWW is available to
everyone (with a modem!)

13. The World Wide Web
• Tim Berners-Lee
publishes “Hypertext
and CERN” (Conseil
Eurpoeenne pour la
Recherche Nucleaire)
• Proposal that was meant
to enable collaboration
• Technologies that were
introduced: HTML, HTTP
and a GUI browser

14. History of the Internet
• 1993: first GUI browser, White House comes
online, businesses and media start to get on
the internet
• 1994: internet shopping, first internet “spam,”
first banner ads

15. History of the Internet
• 1995: JAVA launches, Real
Audio, traditional dial-up
systems begin service
(CompuServe, America
Online, Prodigy), The Vatican
comes online, first official
internet wiretap used by
Secret Service and
DEA, Operation home Front
connects soldiers with their
families via the internet
• 1996: VOIP in
development, various ISPs
experience large outages
due to growing numbers of
users

16. History of the Internet
• 1998: electronic postal
stamps, open source
software comes of age, ecommerce, auctions, emergi
ng technologies – etrade, XML, internet
security/firewalls
• 1999 – 2004: P2P
programs, cell phones, eBay
• 2004: Facebook starts
• 2004 – present: “web 2.0,”
increased interactivity, user
generated content, social
networking, Twitter

17. What is new media?
• The integration of computers, computer
networking and multimedia
• “directly deals with new cultural objects enabled
by network communication technologies, new
media is focused on the cultural and computing –
the products of electronic communication and
the act of computing define what it is to have
“new media””
• Interactivity, convergence, randomness, automa
tion, modularity (one piece built on and reacting
to another)

18. Apps
• The most recent chapter of
Internet development, apps
were first designed as special
software environments for
mobile devices (now the term
extends to include most
software)
• As of 2013, more than 60
billion apps were downloaded
by iTunes users alone!

19. The evolving internet
• Broadband: high speed internet access, typically
$45-70 per month cost, allows for far more
functionality of a user experience than dial-up
• WiFi: wireless access to internet connection
• WiMax: like WiFi, but with a longer range of
coverage (approx 10 miles)
• Monetization of the web: ads, Google
ads, memberships, intangibles (in gaming, for
example)

20. The evolving internet
• Blogs: A study done by the Pew Research
Center found that in 2010 half as many
teenagers blogged as in 2006.
The percentage of people in the 20– 40 age
group who blog also declined.
The Pew study suggested that young people
have turned to Facebook and Twitter to express
their opinions rather than start a blog.

21. Internet economics
• Internet has created about 1.2 million jobs.
• Economists value the direct economic value of the
Internet at around $ 185 billion (in 2009)
• Today:
$36.6B in advertising
Amazon. com’s most recent quarterly revenue at the end of 2013 was
$17B – just for that quarter – averaging about $80B a year
$70 billion paid to Internet service providers (2009)
Analysts estimate that the indirect financial benefit of the internet
on the rest of the economy is about $ 440 billion (2009)
• Advertisers now spend more money on online
advertising than they spend on newspaper advertising.

22. Internet economics
Apple: $156.5B
AT&T: $127.4B
Verizon: $115.8B
Microsoft: $73.7B
Comcast: $62.6B
Amazon: $61.1B
Google: $52.2B
(Forbes 500 List, 2013)

23. Internet economics
Website economics:
1. Subscription sales: sites like The Wall Street
Journal, The Buffalo News, and pornography
websites use a paywall; meaning subscribers
must pay for content
2. Sale of merchandise or services: i.e. Amazon
3. Sale of advertising: banner ads, sponsored
links or posts, classifieds, display ads

24. The Internet Audience
• Feedback: Two major companies track
internet usage for clients; comScore
and Nielsen/ NetRatings
• Pew Research Center calls the Internet
the “ new normal” in the American
way of life.
• 2 out of 3 adults use the Internet
• On a typical day more than 100 million
U. S. adults go online to use email, get their news and
weather, search for specific
information, or simply browse for fun.
• Teenagers use the Internet even
more, with about 8 out of 10 reporting
online use on a regular basis.

25. Social Media
Major characteristics of social media:
1. Participate (such as voting behavior; i.e. liking
something)
2. Converse (posting a comment)
3. Share (creating and posting material)
4. Collaborate (creating content with members of
a group; i.e. Wikipedia)
5. Link up (social networks, friends of
friends, groups based on similar interests)

26. Social Media
• Facebook has over 1.19B monthly active visitors;
approximately 200 million are mobile only
(Facebook.com, 9/2013)
• 81% of teenagers are on social networks
• 46% of adult internet users post original photos
or videos online that they themselves have
created. We call them creators
• 41% of adult internet users take photos or videos
that they have found online and repost them on
sites designed for sharing images with many
people. We call them curators. (Pew, 09/12)
(Pew, 5/2013)
(Pew, 09/12)

27. Effects of Social Media
• Does not seem to impact usage of traditional
media (most social media users are simultaneously utilizing social media and
traditional media; multitasking)
• Changes the way we think of entertainment
(more than 75% of digital video online is created by amateurs. No longer are professionally produced and
distributed content our main source of entertainment)
• Has become indispensable to news gathering
(postings on Facebook and Twitter are often a key source of info as news is breaking, YouTube
videos broadcast on traditional news)
• Has become commercialized (it is now a feature of most
marketing/advertising/public relations campaigns and efforts)

28. Monetizing Social Media
• Advertising on social media generated about
$4.1 billion in 2011, projected to rise to $8
billion in 2016 (July 2013)
• Facebook dominates social media
advertising, collecting more than $64M from
ads in 2012 (roughly about 2 cents per user)
(January 2013)
• Facebook will now begin selling ads for thirdparty apps as a form of new revenue
generation (January 2014)

29. Social Media as Mobilizers
•
•
•
•
Flash mobs
Arab Spring
Occupy Wall Street
Kickstarter campaigns
• Social media may empower young people to assemble
and throw off the reins of an oppressive regime, but the
real test comes afterward when a new, more responsive
government has to be created.
So far, social media have not been as successful in
promoting this more difficult task.

30. Negative Impact
• Social media interferes with productivity in the
workplace
• Digital media are easily duplicated, archived, and
shared. Your tweets, blog entries, Facebook
postings, and photos are probably saved somewhere
on somebody’s hard drive and may come back to haunt
you.
• Many companies report that they routinely check the
Facebook pages of job applicants. Candidates running
for office in 2036 might have to explain why they made
those controversial blog postings back in 2012.

31. Negative Impacts
• Cyberbullying can take many
forms, including posting
derogatory messages on a
person’s Facebook
page, posting embarrassing or
unflattering photos, or
harassing someone via instant
messages, texts, or e- mails.
Social media have made its effects
more serious.
Online bullying spreads quickly and
easily, and it has the potential to
reach a large audience.

32. Negative Impacts
• A recent study done by the Pew
Foundation’s Internet Project contained
some troubling findings:
• One in three teenagers had experienced
some form of cyberbullying
• Online bullies were generally the same age
as their victims
• Girls reported more online harassment than
boys
• Those who experienced online bullying
were more likely to be depressed and were
more apt to miss school.
• There have been several reports of teens
who committed suicide following episodes
of sustained cyberbullying.

33. Negative Impacts
• Facebook communication is not face- to- face
communication. Updating your Facebook
status every couple of hours, sending dozens
of text messages a day, and posting clever
tweets do not develop a person’s
interpersonal communication skills.
Video: Sherrie Turkle “Connected, but alone – together”

34. Social Implications of the Internet
A new model for news:
• Internet supplements the traditional surveillance function of the mass
media. When news happens, it hits social media first. News about the
earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden
first appeared on social media.
• No gatekeepers? This represents a shift in traditional journalism in which
decisions are made by editors and flow from the top down. Now the news
can start at the source and go “sideways” to all who are interested.
• Traditional news used to be a lecture; now it’s a conversation.
• Blogs have questioned the accuracy of news stories in the traditional
media and have exposed several instances of sloppy or inaccurate
reporting.
• Internet provides additional checks and balances to the traditional news
media and makes them more accountable to the public.

35. Social Implications of the Internet
Information Overload:
• Ultimate research tool: before the internet, students doing
research would have to look things up in a text, reference book, or
encyclopedia— sources that had some recognized authority.
• Today, students can use a search engine to look for the topic. A
Web search indiscriminately displays a list of “sources,” which may
number in the millions. Every source on the screen seems to have
the same credibility, even though some may be scientific
documents and others comic books.
• There is so much on the Web that it is sometimes more
overwhelming than useful.
• Students doing a conventional search would also have to assess the
credibility of their sources, but the profuseness of information and
the sheer size of the Net make this extremely difficult to do.

36. Social Implications of the Internet
Privacy concerns:
•
•
•
In 2011, Sony discovered that a hacker had stolen the names, birth dates, and
possibly credit card numbers of 77 million people who played online games using
Sony’s PlayStation
In 2009, a list of the names of 250 Los Angeles Police officers under investigation
for alleged misconduct was mistakenly posted on the Internet.
Some states have put the names and addresses of sex offenders on Web sites.
Although the motives behind this practice may be understandable, the potential
for harm due to incorrect or outdated information is substantial.
– In North Carolina a family was harassed because their address was listed online as the home
of a known sex offender. The sex offender had actually moved away many months earlier, but
the entry was never removed from the database.
•
•
Many companies now charge as much as $150 to do online searches that will
disclose someone’s current address, Social Security number, bank account
number, criminal record, and work history.
Identity theft

37. Social Implications of the Internet
Escapism and isolation
• Does the Internet detach people from other people?
• As more and more attractions go online, will we spend
even more of our lives staring at computer screens?
• Some psychologists have identified a condition known
as Internet addiction, similar to drug or alcohol
addiction.
• Early studies of Internet users revealed that those who
spent many hours online also showed signs of isolation
and depression.

38. The future: The Evernet
• INTERNET ENABLED DEVICES
• Experts predict that in the next 10
years advances in technology will
enable microcomputers (that could be
outfitted into anything:
clothes, appliances, etc.) to carry Web
addresses and be connected
continuously to the Internet.
• Imagine a furnace that automatically
orders new filters over the Internet
whenever it senses that the old ones
are dirty. Imagine wearing a tiny
computer that automatically unlocks
your car, opens your garage door, pays
your toll and parking fees, and reminds
you that your tires need to be rotated.

39. The future: The Evernet
• The Evernet (also called the
Supranet or Internet II) will
mark the convergence of
wireless, broadband, and other
devices, resulting in your being
connected continuously to the
Internet anywhere using any
information device.
• The Evernet will merge the
virtual world with the physical
world.
• Smart houses, appliances with
data, health monitoring