Some Blog Site

I’ve seen the internet grow and change, almost from the beginning (read the whole post for context). And it continues to grow and change.

I’ve also seen my kids grow and change, from the beginning. And they continue to grow and change.

With humans, there is a known growth and development process. Imma gonna list the typical stages of growth of a person, and then compare it to the internet.

Human developmental stages, according to Erik Erikson

• Infancy : Birth to 18 months – A strong, positive and loving connection is established between a mother and her infant during this period.
• Early Childhood : 18 months to 3 years – Children learn to become more independent and develop a sense of personal control.
• Play Stage : 3 to 5 years – children become more observant of their environment and the people surrounding them.
• School Age : 5 to 12 years – Children begin to expand their world to include more people. Children at this stage have a need to be productive and experience a sense of accomplishment.
• Adolescence : 12 to 18 years – Adolescence is a complex stage as individuals search for a sense of identity. Acts of rebellion and withdrawal may occur.
• Young Adulthood : 18 to 35 years – Young adults actively seek out love and companionship in this socially active stage. Some young adults may wish to start a family, others may wish to embark on adventures.
• Middle Adulthood : 35 to 65 years – Significant importance is placed on work and family matters. Significant life changes can develop during this time.
• Maturity : 65 years to death – Individuals tend to reflect upon their lives at this stage. Some adults may look back with a sense of fulfillment and happiness. Others at this stage may feel regret, despair and a sense of failure.

Ok, that was for a human. Now let’s move to the internet, which is really just interactions of people remotely.

Internet developmental stages, according to Some Guy

• Infancy : 1965-1982. ARPA – Network users learn to interact remotely, proving out technical concepts
• Early Childhood : 1982-1993. BBS – Users learn to interact socially
• Play Stage : 1993-1998. WWW – Users experiment with presenting information to the world
• School Age : 1998-2008. Search Engines – Users find ways to organize information
• Adolescence : 2008-2014. Mobile – A new frontier opens up, with new freedoms and little responsibility.
• Young Adulthood : 2014-2020. Social media – Users present and are presented with round-the-clock updates, banding together sometimes, othertimes isolating themselves.
• Middle Adulthood : 2020-???. Whatever now is – People decide to focus on either real life or online life.
• Maturity : ???-x. Whatever the future is. Not sure how long it will be, but it’s the final stage, so whatever was birthed in the previous stage or two should be in adulthood by this time.

There, that’s my 5-minute delve into that topic. For more in-depth analysis, find someone who needs a thesis topic on societal development. Or read the Foundation series by Asimov.

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