2.2 Our digital future … and why it matters

The internet is a relatively old technology – the network as we know it today dates from 1983, and its precursor, the Arpanet, dates from 1969. But media awareness of the internet as a social phenomenon dates only from the mid-1990s and the explosive growth of the World Wide Web. Since then, public discussion about the network has taken place between two extremes which we might call the Utopian and Dystopian views.