Does any of you remember what it was like to experience the internet for the first time? Especially some of you who was born in the 80s like I did and the people who born in 80s or earlier was the ones who truly experienced the internet for the first time especially in the beginning stage and whoever born a few years later than the 90s will never truly have the same experience that many of us who was born before the birth of internet because anyone who born a few years later the birth of internet in the late 80s (1989 in March to be specific) would not have to go through that we had to go through at that time when the internet was born especially World Wide Web (WWW). How is it different, you ask? Some of you may remember, or not remember, that when the internet was born, we went through the most challenging thing ever: trying to connect to the internet via a dial-up connection over a telephone landline. At that time, not many of us had the patience for that kind of thing. The first experience of using the internet today is more pleasurable, leaves you in awe of how it works, and is much less of a hassle to get connected. Back in the days when the internet was just born, it was truly a mess because it’s not as easy as plug and go as we had to manually connect to the internet by adding several information such as IP, DNS/Host name, username, and more then once that we have added the information in we would have to make a call to the telecommunication provider to ask them to connect us so imagine the hassle in doing that.
Today is a much more simple as ordering a broadband service, having a technician to come over and get the internet going for you in no more than twenty (20) minutes without having you to do anything when back in the days we were the one who had to be technician ourselves so imagine some of us who isn’t technician or have any clue how it works. Thankfully, I got the know-how at that time, when the internet was born.
Using dial-up at that time, when the internet was born, was painful because it was slow; in fact, it was slower than current dial-up speeds, as some providers still offer dial-up internet connections. You love downloading songs or movies from iTunes or the internet, don’t you? I do too, and took me to download just one song in about two to three days at that time so imagine how painful it was at that time but still if it weren’t for that we probably would not have the internet today which is very fast since the average speed of internet is in between 30MB to 50MB for a regular sized house. Ever since then, the internet has pretty much taken over our daily lives, becoming an essential part of our lives. Who do we give thanks to for making our lives much easier, especially for providing a way to connect with people online, like Facebook or other social media?
Deaf Created Internet
You can thank a gentleman named Vinton Cerf who happens to be hard of hearing at birth, helped to founded a company named Arpanet in 1970s with a few researchers and during that time in a development Arpanet company due to Vinton Cerf frustration because he had a difficult time in communicating with the researchers so he decided to co-design TCP/IP which is a protocol for internet communication. Using the TCP/IP protocol for internet communication to relay a message to some of his researchers in the company Arpanet and it was not the only thing that motivated Vinton Cerf to design TCP/IP as he has a wife Sigrid who happens to be Deaf so he had to find a way to help his wife Sigrid with a way to communicate as well.
Just two decades later, the designs that Vinton Cerf designed became “the internet” that everybody uses today. Every household has its own unique IP address, since no one has the same one. To have an internet connection, you need a unique IP address assigned to a networking server. If it weren’t for IP, which stands for Internet Protocol, we wouldn’t have our own accounts on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or even Instagram. In the eyes of millions of people, Vinton Cerf is “the Father of the Internet,” and not many people realize that Vinton Cerf is hard of hearing. For Vinton Cerf’s success, he was recognized by a Deaf university, Gallaudet University, and was awarded for his success in inventing something that has taken over our lives; the internet, and to give every one of us a way of connecting with people worldwide.
Here is a Wikipedia page that explains who Vinton Cerf is, the father of the internet, and his designs for TCP/IP, which underlie internet communication. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Cerf
If you want to be technical, Hard of Hearing created the internet. Still, many individuals in the Deaf community prefer to say that they are Deaf instead of hard of hearing, so even if you are Hard of Hearing, you are still Deaf nonetheless. I am Hard of hearing myself, but I don’t see myself as that, as I have already accepted that I am Deaf, and in my opinion, the words “Hard of Hearing” should be replaced with the word “Deaf” to define us more simply.
Still think that Deaf or Hard of Hearing cannot do something? How about something that takes a huge part of your life? Yes, the internet. 🙂
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan.
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