COM 125: INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERNET

Up until the early 2000s, education occurred only in a classroom of students with a teacher who led the process. Physical presence was deemed as the most effective way to teach, and any other type of learning was questionable at best. Then the Internet happened, and the rest is history. E-learning has since then become a rapidly growing industry, all the while constantly evolving to accommodate the various technological advances that have occurred since. There is a plethora of different e-learning tools, and the good ones are able to be facilitated from virtually anywhere, bridging geographical gaps and increasing convenience of accessibility.  E-learning also offers the ability to share material in all kinds of formats such as videos, slideshows, word documents and PDFs. And with the invention of live video recording and instant messaging, conducting webinars (live online classes) and communicating with professors via chat and message forums have also become a possibilit...

The holiday season is approaching, and I'm sure that most of us are really excited to enjoy the accompanying festive goodies, bond with our families and friends, or to just bask in the festive atmosphere. But this season also entails something that some of us may dread: holiday shopping . Ten years ago, most of us would have done our holiday shopping at physical stores — perhaps at "brick-and-mortar" shops or shopping malls. But now, retail has evolved, launching us into the age of "online shopping". This has become all the rage in recent years, and has actually become a threat to physical retail commerce. Online shopping is a form of e-commerce that allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from sellers over the Internet. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the retailer directly or by searching among various vendors using a search engine, which displays the same product's availability and pricing at different reta...

In today's market, harnessing the power of social media is a must if you want to grow your business or brand. From Instagram posts to Twitter announcements, these are just some of the many features of a carefully managed social media campaign. A large percentage of the public uses social media today ― Pew Research Center reports 70 percent ― so businesses can't afford not to interact with audiences via social networking sites. With this in mind, any aspiring entrepreneur who has yet to harness the power of social media needs to get with the program, ASAP. The key is creating a strong online presence, which then translates into loyal customers, and more customers = more $$$, which is the main goal of all businesses. In order to grow your business using social media, one needs to learn how to choose the best social media channels, which requires taking time to familiarize yourself with each network, how it runs, and what demographics use that platform. Many tech sites offe...

Since the beginning of time, humans have been advancing technology constantly. In the past, there was no piece of technology that was shared by everyone -- each empire had their own. Globalization had not occurred, and the Internet had not been yet invented. Fast forward to the 20th century when the Internet finally became a reality, that invention would then proceed to change the world completely, by bringing people around the world together simply because they all had access to the same piece of technology.  However, in today's time we can all be connected to one another through social media. As of today, 50% of the world's population use the Internet , and 37% are active social media users. Hence, social media has irrevocably changed the way people communicate and pass information around the world, as well as business and commercial industries as well. Gone are the days where advertising only existed in the form of print, on newspapers, magazines, or billboards etc. In ...