Happy Internaut Day! We celebrate 25 years of the World Wide Web

Can anyone imagine the world before the Internet? I sure can’t. Like many who owe their daily existence to the World Wide Web, I’ve relegated that dark era of human history to the innermost recesses of my mind.

The truth is the Internet as we know it didn’t come into being until August 23, 1991 – the very first Internaut Day. That means today is none other than the 25th anniversary of the Internet.

The word “Internaut” is a combination of the words “Internet” and “astronaut,” and basically refers to someone with deep, technical knowledge of the Internet. That word best describes Tim Berners-Lee, the British CERN scientist responsible for inventing the World Wide Web.

While an older, more esoteric form of the Internet was used by scientists and the academe to share information with one another, it was Tim Berners-Lee who brought the World Wide Web to the public. Between 1989 and 1990, he worked to make the Internet simple enough so that you didn’t have to be a computer wizard to be able to understand and use it. Then, in 1991, his creation was finally unleashed upon the world, and for the first time in history, the Internet and its boundless reservoir of information was accessible to all.

Again, we ask you: can anyone imagine the world before the Internet? Before Facebook and Twitter? Before emails, online forums, and Skype? Before Wikipedia, Netflix, YouTube, torrents, online gaming, and online streaming services? And yes, we know you’re thinking it: even porn got a whole lot bigger thanks to the Internet.

So let’s give Tim Berners-Lee the credit he deserves, and the World Wide Web a standing ovation. Here’s to 25 more years of limitless information, entertainment, and social media! — BM, GMA News