We can find something personal in that -- the Internet has made us, individually, both smarter and less smart. Haven't we all clicked on our keyboards to find out things like, 'Who won the World Series in 1943' and 'What are the symptoms of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis?' Well, questions like that anyway! By the same token, haven't we all stared at our computer screens, eyes glazed, barely focused on some ridiculous game, or looking at our Facebook accounts, as opposed to doing all the work that's piled up around us, or just going to bed for the night?
Then there's the bigger picture. As of March 31, 2011, there were 2,095,006,005 Internet users on the planet Earth, according to InternetWorldStats.com. Yes, that's nearly 2.1 trillion! A whole lot of people! Nearly half of us -- 44% -- are in Asia. North American has the largest Internet penetration, with 78.3% of the population online. The smallest penetration area is Africa, where just 11.4% of folks are online. Surely they will catch up.
The Internet is big business, too. One example: During the final quarter -- that's just three months -- of 2010, Google reported revenues of $8.44 billion. And that was a 26% increase over the prior year!
It's clear that the Internet has us hooked, and it's enabling some companies to make a whole lot of money. Right?
