Now We Have the Internet, But Why Do We Need It?

ReLik writes "BBC News is reporting on a survey carried out on the statistics of internet users in the UK, 'While the battle for digital access is being won, we now face a struggle to convince everyone the net is worth using' said Professor Richard Rose, of the Oxford Internet Institute. It begs the question why goverments around the world are encouraging everyone to use the internet, but is there really enough of a reason for everybody to need to? Is the internet suitable for everybody? Will it ever be?"

Re:Good question

[Jucius Maximus]

"So what DOES the internet have to offer me? It doesn't cook me dinner, take out the trash, or even clean up its room."

It offers you a method to bypass bureaucracy and human limits: On sunday night / monday morning at 1 AM I got a fresh copy of the forms for the "Application for a Permanent Resident Card [cic.gc.ca]" for a friend who got into a jam whole visiting China who desperately needed it without having to go to Canada Customs and Immigration during business hours.

Re:Its more efficient than going to a library

[dvdeug]

True, you can learn about anything at the click of a button. But how accurate is that information? It may take you hours to find some decently reliable information. Atleast if it comes from a printed encyclopedia I'd give it a little more credit than if you went to Google and and hit "I'm Feeling Lucky." It's very aptly named.

A printed encyclopedia is great if you want a shallow overview of a subject. But if you want a dictionary of Yiddish, or a transliteration guide, don't bother searching at the North Las Vegas library, or (heaven help you) the Alva library. If you want a intro to an arbitrary programming language, search the net. If you want Victorian potboilers, you'll find more of them at Project Gutenberg then even a midsize university library,
in a format far more portable then microfilm and searchable to boot.

What does Goatse.cx actually teach you about having sex with goats?

Honestly, if you're interested in having sex with goats, you can search a university and find a few articles from doctors and psychologists, or you can search the net and find FAQ's from people who have actual experiance in the matter, complete with pictures. (Hey, you chose the subject.)

it shouldn't take you hours to find what you're looking for at the library.

They are more complementary then opposed. There's a lot of scholarly things I'd go digging around my library first. But when looking up the somewhat obscure actress Dana Hill, I can either dig through big indexes to find a few references to articles (in magazines that few libraries archive) and a out of date filmography, or I can hit www.imdb.com and find a complete filmography, and then search around to find a site with a dozen of those articles online.