The document discusses predictions for how the Internet may evolve by the year 2035 in six key areas:
1) The Internet will be highly personalized to each individual, knowing their preferences, habits, and relationships.
2) Access to the Internet will be ubiquitous, allowing people to connect from anywhere through various interfaces.
3) The Internet will be more interactive, anticipating people's needs and taking actions on their behalf without being explicitly prompted.
1. MY IMAGINATION - THE INTERNET IN FUTURE
My essay is all about how the Internet may look like in the future say 2035. My
mind-set shows our inability to predict technological advancements with any
degree of accuracy, and by no means am I saying that this is a factual essay
with evidence. It’s just a bit of fun to see how the Internet could play out, and
in 2035 I’ll see if I got anything right. In future, the Internet will be:
1) Personal
2) Accessible
3) Interactive
4) Social
5) Universal
6) News Media
1) PERSONAL:
In future, there will not be just one Internet. We will each have our own
Internet, which functions in a very different way to how another person’s
Internet functions. Our Internet will know everything about us - our frequently
visited locations, our shopping habits, our friend’s current locations, what
music we like, the book we’re currently reading, what products we want to
buy, whose house we’re going to next Tuesday. No matter where we are, our
Internet will be available to us in the same way. Everything digital that we own
will be able to be accessed through our Internet, wherever we are - that
includes music, movies, books, and of course all websites.
2) ACCESSIBLE:
Every one of us will be able to access the Internet from wherever we are. We
may say we can do this already with smart phones, but that concept will be
taken a step further. Think about it when we’re in the changing room of a
clothes store, and we are retrying on an expensive shirt. We might think it
looks good, but we want our girlfriend’s opinion. Today, I’d have to take a
photo and then send it to my girlfriend (who thankfully has a smart phone -
what happens if your girlfriend doesn’t? Hopefully I don’t have any
2. girlfriend!!). In future, we’ll simply access the Internet on the wall of the
changing room (which will have a monitor), and it’ll then take multiple photos
of us from different angles and send them all to your girlfriend.
3) INTERACTIVE :
Today, we can do two things with the Internet. We can create content, or
we can consume content. In future, this will change. We will no longer sit in
front of a screen typing on a keyboard and then have to visit a website to
upload the text to share with others. The Internet will interact with our
environment and our actions to read our intentions, and then act on our
behalf.
Take this example. If we’re in a shop and buy a new pair of jeans, our
Internet will then pick up on this action through our linked credit card bill,
and will generate links to websites of similar products that we may like. The
next time we access our Internet (on the bus home?) we will then be
shown the suggestions, and can browse around. We didn’t specifically ask
our Internet to do this for us, but it acted intelligently to help us out and
make our life easier.
4) SOCIAL:
Yeah, of course our Internet will be social! I don’t think Facebook will be
around in 2035 (say), and that’s because they are attempting to defy social
laws. But in future? People will be long bored of that! In 2035, there might be
ten major social networks, each with 300 million users. The social network that
we belong to will be a representation of who we are as an individual - it will be
a method of expression. Just like we say we are “Indians”, in 2035 we will say
“Hi, I’m Kaustubh – I’m an Indian and insert social network name here”. It will
help to define us. Then we will have connections - people we know, but don’t
talk to often or share much with. From there, we just have the other members
of society - we have nothing to do with them. The system of ‘friending’ people
is broken, and in 2035 social networks will be more mature to the stage that
they are organised like physical societies are. We’ll only share things that are
important and that we know the group of our close friends/family will care
about.
3. 5) UNIVERSAL:
In 2035, everyone anywhere in the world will have the ability to connect to
the Internet. Speed will be incredibly fast (100 times as fast as fibre optic cable
today), and we will be able to download movies in a second. Once the Internet
is universal in future, we may see developing nations rise faster from poverty -
if everyone has access to the same information, even unskilled workers can
become skilled and run entrepreneurial businesses through the Internet. The
form of the Internet in 2013 is broken. Some websites are brilliantly designed -
they look fantastic, are brilliant, and make our lives easier. Others are the exact
opposite, and are awful to use. In 2035, there will be standards to make all
websites universal. In essence, we will not browse websites on the Internet.
We will be browsing apps like now we do. Apps make sense, and have
elements that are universal so we know how to use them. This is how the
Internet will be structured in 2035.
6) NEWS MEDIA:
Normal people like us will carry out our daily lives, but will see events that are
newsworthy. Our Internet will allow us to capture these events in images or
videos, and will then automatically send them to news media organisations.
There will be a fundamental difference in the role of the news organisation in
2035. Today, the news organisations are the ones finding the news and then
publishing it. In 2035, the news organisation will collect news received from
citizens, and their role will be to verify it. No longer will they have journalists
actively seeking out news, but their journalists’ job will be to attempt to verify
news before it is published.