Who Needs the Internet?

A recent survey released by the US Commerce Department gave some startling stats.

For those of us who spend all of our waking lives directly connected to the Internet, it's hard to believe that — get this — "30 percent of all persons do not use the Internet anywhere".

Wow.

And one of the main reasons offered for steering clear of the Internet?

"I don't need it."

They don't need the Internet. They use the phone, they have TV and radio. They send letters via the post office. You know, all that mid-20th-century technology.

***

Three decades ago, when 99.999 percent of all persons did not use the Internet anywhere, a few scientists needed to send computer files across the country.

So the Internet's first app (not called an app) was file transfer, conducted in the protocol of FTP.

And folks wanted to send messages across the country without using postal letters or telegrams.

Thus came email, which used (and still uses) SMTP protocol.

Large companies and universities were the first to be directly connected to the Internet, and it was no trouble for them to use FTP and email.

And those offices and groups who couldn't afford a hard-wired Internet connection used a point-to-point protocol for file transfer and email, called uucp (Unix-to-Unix copy). This worked over ordinary phone lines. It was possible to send email and files without ever using the Internet.

Along came more interactive data transfer protocols, like HTTP, which made the Web — the third great Internet app — possible. And HTTP would only work on the Internet proper.

But until the mid-1990s, few individuals had a true Internet connection.

Then began the age of the ISP, and you could connect directly — for an hour or two — from home, via a telephone line (ie, "dialup"). Later this was improved to an always-on hookup via DSL, fiber, TV cable, and WiFi.

Why this walk down Internet's Memory Lane?

I forgot.

Oh yeah.

Like those scientists in the 1970s, we are still in the daily business of sending messages and files via the Internet.

That is still the essence of all Internet traffic, including the Web.

"I want to tell you something."

That is the need.

As humans, we've always had that need.

Only now billons of people can do it easily via the Internet.

***

In bygone ages, before the Internet, before telephones, before the telegraph, before the railroad, delivering your message to a distant recipient meant only one thing — paying someone to get it there for you. You wrote it down, put it in an envelope. Maybe you tossed in some business papers or drawings. And you handed it off to a personal courier (if you had that kind of money) or to the post office. All that took a half-hour to get ready.

Your envelope was then carried in a saddlebag on the side of horse, in a sack on the floor of a carriage, or in a bag on a runner's back.

Hours, days, or months later, your envelope would arrive. (Assuming it wasn't lost or destroyed en route.)

Today, with email, the speed has improved somewhat. When my brother sends me a message, he spends 3 minutes writing it. He then adds files and photos as attachments and clicks Send.

It goes from his computer in Santa Barbara, to Yahoo Mail in Mountain View, to my mail server in Florida. On my PC in Northern California, the Thunderbird email program gets the new message (through the IMAP IDLE connection) and I see a pop-up notifier. Amount of time for the "envelope" to travel? Less than a second.

***

So, we are only doing the same thing as our ancestors did long ago.

Only faster.

And because it's faster, more of us are doing it.

A few hundred years ago, most people couldn't even read or write. They had no interest, or even an idea, of sending a message to a distant recipient. They only spoke to their family and friends within a radius of a few miles.

Now 70 percent of us are sending billions of messages per day all over the world (and getting tons of info from the Web).

Is that good? I think so. More communication means more agreement and less contempt. It means more acceptance and less anger.

And the 30 percent who do not use the Internet anywhere? They are satisfied with some slightly older methods. And it's likely they will use email or surf the web someday, as that is obviously the trend.

But then again, there are plenty of people who would rather not get 500 emails and spams each day, or look at countless websites.

At times, I envy those 30 percent. Having less information can be rather serene.