what is the internet?

As adults move into older age, the social barriers they often encounter start taking their toll. Isolation, loneliness & depression can be experienced as family & friends move away & are less accessible as well as their individual mobility & independence start to decline.

The two biggest benefits to using tech confidently and easily are:

To make creating, sharing, playing & working efficient and fun. Every day our lives are more intertwined with technology. From ordering food to staying in touch with family to running a business, technology is integrated into everything & will only keep increasing.

When you become efficient and somewhat skilled with tech you can save yourself lots of time, which allows you to focus more energy on your priorities & enjoy life more.

The World Wide Web—the Internet—being Online

People will either say "Look it up on the "internet", look it up "online" or look it up on the "web". This enormous amount of FREE information (data) is a telecommunications network that uses telephone lines, cables, satellites & wireless connections to connect computers and other devices (phones, tablets, etc.) to what is called the World Wide Web. Being 'online' simply means that your computer or hand-held device is connected to a network that enables you to be able to go 'online' & access everything you've ever wanted to know. 

The Internet can be used to:

  • access a huge 'library' of information from the millions of websites around the world that make up this phenomenon called the World Wide Web

  • send & receive email messages

  • share photos & video clips with friends and family

  • buy goods and services

  • do your banking

  • have private video chats with friends & family anytime

  • play games with other people online

  • catch up on TV & radio that you've missed

  • learn something new with an online course

 What is a website?

A website, or ‘site’, is a collection of pages that relate to each other. So, for instance if you click on Home Depot, this first page is called the 'homepage'  for Home Depot. Then there you’ll find hyperlinks (or ‘links’) to all the other ‘subpages’ contained within Home Depot's website. These links are highlighted or made distinctive in some way, allowing you to find them easily so that you can click on them to get to another part of the site. It's easy!

How do you search the internet for what you're looking for?

The most popular way to search the internet is by using Google. 

  • There's a simple search box into which you can type your query

  • Answers are provided almost instantly

  • You can choose to search for websites, images, news, maps and much more

  • It will make suggestions for alternative search terms if you misspell a word or name

Google uses a computer program called a 'web crawler' that looks at the billions of websites available on the World Wide Web and examines their content to find 'keywords'. Then it indexes these to make the websites easier for Google to find. So if you type the word ‘holidays’ in the search box, for instance, Google will then show you all the websites with holiday information.

resources

BECAUSE INTERNET understanding the new rules of language/how to speak fluent internet