The Internet Grows Up and Goes to Work
The Internet Grows Up and Goes to Work
User-Friendly Tools for Productive Adults
This chapter discusses how in the decade following the release of WarGames, computing became a more common activity, which led to more networking. It illustrates how computer networking emerged as a symbol of national economic power and productivity. Throughout the mid- to late 1980s and early 1990s, hopeful views of the Internet and computer corporations began to gain resonance. These (often) corporate visions challenged previously threatening representations—like the anthropomorphized computer capable of overpowering or replacing humans—and helped recast the computer as a friendly co-worker. In recasting the Internet, corporations, advertisers, and news media outlets also re-imagined the Internet user. The out-of-control computer jockeyed by an antiestablishment teenaged hacker shifted to a “user-friendly” computer controlled by a knowledgeable, adult “user.” The chapter also looks at the transformation of the Internet as a political sphere instrumental in helping America retain global economic dominance.
Keywords: computer networking, economic power, productivity, 1980s, 1990s, computing, Internet user, political sphere, America, global economic dominance
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