Do any one of you remember what it was to experience the internet for the first time? Especially some of you who was born in the 80s like I did and the people who born in 80s or earlier was the ones who truly experienced the internet for the first time especially in the beginning stage and whoever born a few years later than the 90s will never truly have the same experience that many of us who was born before the birth of internet because anyone who born a few years later the birth of internet in the late 80s (1989 in March to be specific) would not have to go through that we had to go through at that time when the internet was born especially World Wide Web (WWW). How is it different you ask? Some of you may remember or not remember, when the internet was born at that time we had gone through the most difficult thing ever with the internet and that is trying to connect to the internet using dial-up connection via telephone landline cable and at that time not many of us had the patience for that kind of thing. To have the first experience in trying out the internet today is more pleasuring, would put you in amaze of how the internet works and much less of hassles in getting connected to the internet. Back in the days when the internet was just born, it was truly a mess because it’s not as easy as plug and go as we had to manually connect to the internet by adding several information such as IP, DNS/Host name, username, and more then once that we have added the information in we would have to make a call to the telecommunication provider to ask them to connect us so imagine the hassle in doing that.
Today is a much more simple as ordering a broadband service, having a technician to come over and get the internet going for you in no more than twenty (20) minutes without having you to do anything when back in the days we were the one who had to be technician ourselves so imagine some of us who isn’t technician or have any clue how it works but thankfully I got the know-how at that time when the internet was born.
Using the dial-up at that time when the internet was born were painful because it was very slow and in fact it was slower than the current speed for a dial-up internet today as there are still some providers who offer a dial-up internet connection. You love downloading a song or a movie off iTunes or somewhere on the internet don’t you? I do too and took me to download just one song in about two to three days at that time so imagine how painful it was at that time but still if it weren’t for that we probably would not have the internet today which is very fast since the average speed of internet is in between 30MB to 50MB for a regular sized house. Ever since then the internet pretty much took over our daily lives as it have become an essential thing in our life and who do we give the thanks to for making our life a much easier especially having a way to connect with the people online like Facebook or other in social media?
Deaf Created Internet
You can thank a gentleman named Vinton Cerf who happens to be hard of hearing at birth, helped to founded a company named Arpanet in 1970s with a few researchers and during that time in a development Arpanet company due to Vinton Cerf frustration because he had a difficult time in communicating with the researchers so he decided to co-design TCP/IP which is a protocol for internet communication. Using the TCP/IP protocol for internet communication to relay a message to some of his researchers in the company Arpanet and it was not the only thing that motivated Vinton Cerf to design TCP/IP as he has a wife Sigrid who happens to be Deaf so he had to find a way to help his wife Sigrid with a way to communicate as well.
Just two decades later the designs that Vinton Cerf designed became “the internet” that everybody uses today. Every households have their own unique IP address as there is nobody that has the same IP address, because in order to have internet connection is to have their unique IP address hosted to a networking server and if it wasn’t for IP which stands for internet protocol then we wouldn’t have our own accounts on a social networking like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or even Instagram. In millions eyes of the people, Vinton Cerf is “the Father of Internet” and not many people realizes that Vinton Cerf is hard of hearing. For Vinton Cerf success he was recognized by an only Deaf university, Gallaudet University and was awarded for his success in inventing in something that have taken over our life; the internet and to give every one of us a way of connecting with the people worldwide.
Here is a great article to get a better understanding of who the father of internet, Vinton Cerf and about his designs in TCP/IP which is internet communication. Click here to read.
If you want to be technical, Hard of Hearing created the internet but many individuals in the Deaf community prefer to say that they are Deaf instead of hard of hearing so even if you are Hard of Hearing you are still Deaf nonetheless. I am Hard of Hearing myself but I don’t see myself as that as I have already accepted that I am Deaf and in my opinion that the words “Hard of Hearing” should be destroyed and replace it as the word “Deaf” to define us in more simple way.
Still think that Deaf or Hard of Hearing cannot do something? How about something that takes a huge part of your life? Yes, the internet. 🙂
~ Joshie.
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