Surfing

Thousands of people go surfing in the seas around Indonesia each year, but millions of people in Indonesia go surfing on dry land. How can this be? Well, of course it's veryy different type of surfing. The second type of surfing is "surfing the web". The world wide web, which is found on the internet.
So, what exactly is the internet and what is the world wide web? Well, it all dates back to the beginning of the 1970's. The American government wanted to fing a way that different areas of the military could communicate with each other. It also wanted to provide a way for scientist and researchers in universities to communicate directly with each other.
For nearly twenty years, the use of internet was limited bye the American government, but in the early 1990's, it allowed the internet to be used for comersial use. In 1995, the world wide web opened up a global communications system for anyone who had access to a computer which could be connected to the internet.
Today, the internet is used by people sitting own homes, or by company, employees sittting in their offices. Every hour of everyday, thousands of people around the world are sending electonic mail to other people, either for bussines or private reasons. Electronic mail, or e-mail as we all call it, has for many people replaced the hand written letters that are sent throught postal services. E-mails have also largely replaced the faxes and telexes that bussines used to send.
Around the world, many students used the internet for research as it contains website with information on just about every subject that is possible to imagine. In some countries, schools even provide free internet access for students in their learning resource centres. However, possibly the biggest use of internet by young people is the access it gives to chat rooms. These are virtual meeting rooms where people from all over the world can 'get together' and chat about things that interest them.