The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing.
The Internet has its origins in the 1960s with the development of packet switching and the ARPANET, a research network funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. The standardization of the TCP/IP protocol suite in the early 1980s allowed different networks to interconnect, forming the modern Internet. The invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 popularized the Internet, making it accessible to the general public.
Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has had a revolutionary impact on culture, commerce, and technology. It has transformed communication through email, social media, and video calls. It has reshaped the global economy through e-commerce and remote work. Today, billions of people and devices ('Internet of Things') are connected, making it the backbone of the modern information society.