Internetage

Internetage is a term used to describe the period in which the Internet became a pervasive global infrastructure that shapes how people communicate, work, learn, and consume media. It encompasses the growth of broadband and mobile connectivity, cloud computing, and platform-based services that connect individuals and organizations across borders. The phrase is used by scholars, journalists, and commentators to denote an era defined by digital networks that extend into nearly all sectors of society.

The term emerged in contemporary discourse as a shorthand for the late 1990s onward, when the World Wide Web achieved mass adoption and online services became central to daily life. While not universally standardized, the concept is widely used to discuss changes in business models, culture, and governance brought by the Internet.

Key features include instantaneous cross-border communication, ubiquitous access through smartphones and high-bandwidth connections, online commerce, user-generated content, and data-driven decision making. The era has given rise to platform ecosystems, cloud services, and algorithmic curation, while raising concerns about privacy, security, misinformation, monopoly power, and surveillance.

Economic and social structures have reorganized around digital networks, enabling remote work, digital entrepreneurship, and global information flows, but also widening the digital divide and creating new dependencies on technical infrastructures. Policy debates cover antitrust action, data protection, content moderation, and the energy use of data centers and devices.

Related topics include the Information Age, the digital divide, net neutrality, Web 2.0, and the Internet of Things.