A decade or so ago, people would often spend their weekdays at the office. Meeting around the water cooler to gossip, going out to lunch together, and meeting for a drink after work were the norm. Anyone who found themselves at home with small children would probably be running errands. Busy parents would tote their young ones to the grocery store, the bank, the mall, and then possibly to a friends house for lunch before returning home to greet their other children returning home from school. Face-to-face interaction was commonplace; from co-workers to the bank teller, from the lunch partner to the cashier at the GAP, we were interacting with people at every turn. .
Today that has all changed. For a large number of people face-to-face communication has become outdated. The office worker is now able to work from home, e-mailing and video conferencing allow them to work from the comfort of their own home. That busy parent? They are saving valuable time by doing their groceries, paying their bills, and shopping at the GAP online. And why meet that friend for lunch when you could just chat with her online? On top of that, the school aged-children would never even have to leave the house. They can now attend school online and interact with classmates and teachers in discussion groups. While it is unlikely that these people never see the light of day, the internet has vastly changed the day-to-day interactions of more than one office worker, stay-at-home parent, and school pupil.
Since the Internet was established for personal use in the early 1990s, it has rapidly been gaining popularity for a variety of reasons. The internet has proven to be a useful tool for researching, gaming, downloading music, shopping, and meeting new people.