The Internet and the web, do you know the difference? For several years I assume that many including myself did not or at least did not think of them separately. If one got on the Internet they got on the web. Fast forward to today and the distinction is clear. The internet is used but more for apps, not web surfing. After reading the wired. com article “ The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet ”, I agree with both Chris Anderson’s and Michael Wolff’s take on the matter but I’m leaning more toward Anderson. Wolff suggests it is them (media moguls) to blame for web’s demise while Anderson says that it is us.
The introduction of the Internet and countless other technologies has turned our world into a very fast paced and impatient society. We want something and we want to it now. Anderson spoke of the convenience and reliability of apps. He gave the example of google maps being better to have on one’s phone they bring to their car than on one’s laptop at home. With apps information is given rather than having to search for it. It is easier for information to come to the screen than for one to go to the screen. “The web is not the culmination of the digital revolution,” says Anderson. It is the Internet that fuels many technologies and services with the web only being one of the many.
On the other hand, Wolff focuses on the them. The media moguls of today like Apple CEO Steve Jobs. They are after control and power. Jobs and others like him have realized that product has power over technology. Apple has control over content, the delivery of content, and the devices that content plays on. This does not go with the openness of the web. Internet services like Netflix are taking people away from the web. Apps and Internet services give people what they want. People are looking for product and “them” know this. Product is more easily accessible through controlled apps than searching for it over the open web.
I agree with both but I lean more toward Anderson’s explanation due to my own use of the Internet. Once I got an iPhone I do use it more than the web and I do this because it is faster, easier, convent, and reliable. The apps on my phone give me the content I want without me having to go on the web and search for them. I am rarely ever on Facebook on an actual computer. At times I can remember myself on my Facebook app while on my laptop. Why didn’t I just log in? I am already logged in on my Facebook app and can scroll and tap faster than clicking. The only time I am on the web is if I want to see something on a bigger screen than my phone or YouTube. Even though there’s an app for that..... There really is an app for EVERYTHING. There is now even an app store on my MacBook. Now I can use my computer for more than schoolwork and the pages application I use to write such things as this blog. Still not using the web so much though.
