The Rise of the Internet

Most of our days here on Earth are spent looking at a screen. We are either watching TV, writing papers on our laptops, or taking the perfect selfies. I sound like a broken record when I say our lives seem to be almost completely digital. But beyond our selfies and mobile profile picture uploads, the internet has proven to be truly beneficial entity for economies around the world.

A shopper. Photo

Think about it: when you want a material object, where do you go? You don't pack up shop and take drive down a dusty road to the general store; you take out your phone and look it up. If you value the product more than the money in your bank (MB>MC), you can purchase the item with a couple clicks and sit back until it arrives at our doorstep or in your local commons building.

This is beneficial to small businesses because it increases visibility. This means a company with relatively small market influence can use a third party online retailers like Amazon.com, or by using their own websites and marketing to attract more people. And with over 3.5 billion internet users (click the link for a cool live count) and counting, the internet will only become more useful in the future.

One of many internet users. Photo

In fact, in a report conducted by the Internet Association, it was found that the internet sector was responsible for $966.2 billion, or 6%, of U.S. real GDP in 2014. If you're not familiar, GDP stands for "gross domestic product" and is a measure of all the goods and services in a country. This shows just how important the internet is to our economy. And we can only expect its influence to increase!

Infamous Snap Filter. Photo

The prevalence of the internet, including social media, is so prevalent, that a Forbes article explains how one business visionary sees our lives taking on a "blended reality." Forbes mentions how this could even contribute to a boom in the Selfie Economy. The article explains how "selfies will eventually form a part of an energized soup of connectivity of media intelligence." To me, that just sounds like fancy language for my Instagram feed is going to be clogged with selfies. I just hope our society moves past the Snapchat dog filter.

 Who knows, maybe one day we will be able to monetize our selfies in this so-called Selfie Economy that Forbes speaks of. What do you think? Is this possible? Would you drop everything and become a selfie-peneur, or would you delete all of your social media?