Connection Timed Out

Several things were barely imagined when the Internet was first created. This early project for scientists has since defied early criticism and grown exponentially into the most relevant creation of the twentieth-century. Its influence has been phenomenal. The Internet has connected cultures and countries, and reshaped political ideas and movements as it stretches across areas of technology, transportation, healthcare and communication all while creating its own unique set of rules to address these growing economies.

THE INTERNET AND NIGERIA

At the turn of the millennium, there were more than 360 million Internet users. As at December 2018, this number has grown to a network of almost four billion users all connected by the push of a button. The best instances of good Internet connection exist in Western countries where benchmarks of basic economic and individual growth have been met and sufficiently exceeded. More than 312 million people out of a population of 326 million in the United States were connected to the Internet as at 31 December 2017. That leaves less than ten per cent of the country’s people without access. This figure, according to the Pew Research Centre, consists of a significant number of people who have opted for ‘Internet non-adoption’: a voluntary disconnection from the digital world.