by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: June 07, 2009

The Internet has not only changed my life over the past couple of years in particular, it has all but consumed it. I use the Internet to work, I use the Internet to communicate, I use the Internet to do my banking and take care of my finances and I use the Internet to learn and to develop my knowledge in so many different ways. It could be said that to a certain extent, the Internet is the tool with which I conduct my life.

When I first started using the Internet, it was simply as a means of exploring the wider world at large. I was a late starter on the Internet, only ever accessing it for the first time long after it had achieved wide scale popularity. I was immediately addicted to it but more than that, intrigued by the seemingly endless possibilities and opportunities which it appeared to afford.

I first started working on the Internet part-time, creating miniature websites and writing articles for sites such as Helium. As my level of success grew, however, I eventually went self-employed, using the Internet as a major part of the activities in which I engaged. As the financial markets all but collapsed, however, and Credit Crunch put its inexorable squeeze on big parts of my business, I was forced to diversify and turn to the Internet as my full-time means of earning my living.

Communicating via the Internet is widely thought to be synonymous with sending e-mails. While e-mails are of course a big part of online communication, they do not have exclusive right to the domain. Social networking sites, article writing sites, Web 2.0 sites and associated forums - all can be considered a part of communicating with other people from around the world via the Internet.

The convenience of Internet banking cannot be denied but it is of course something which has caused a great deal of controversy since its inception. Horror stories of hackers gaining access to the accounts of private individuals abound and although there can be no doubt that this can and does happen, if we were to consider the number of personal financial transactions which are performed on the Internet each day and subsequently consider what percentage of them were fraudulent, I have no doubt that the statistics would prove very comforting indeed.

The Internet is of course the greatest search and learning tool which mankind has ever devised. Almost regardless of what we wish to know, we can simply perform a search engine request and have the information on our screen in mere seconds. This has proven invaluable to me in so many aspects of my life, from settling simple disputes with friends over sports' results or achievements to obtaining information I require to complete a work assignment.

I therefore use the Internet as my employer, my banker, my communications medium and my teacher. The Internet is my most important tool in life and without it, I simply could not live the life I lead.

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