When the Internet debuted in 1984, the world began to change in dramatic ways. Over the past three decades, the growth of the Internet has changed how we shop, how we're entertained, how we communicate, and how we gather information and get the news.To put things into visual perspective, I searched through the Newstex blog archives and found four great infographics that tell the story of how the Internet has grown over the years and its affect on media, news, and content consumption. I also found an infographic that is appearing on the Newstex blog for the first time today.Together, these infographics give you a clear picture of just how much the world has changed as the Internet grew.

The Incredible Growth of Web Usage (1984-2013)

This infographic from WhoIsHostingThis? is appearing on the Newstex blog for the first time in this article. Take a look at the stats in the infographic and you'll see that 39% of the world's population is online today, and 60% of those people use the Internet for at least 3 hours per day.In 1993, there were only 130 websites, but by 2012, that number had skyrocketed to 634 billion. With more people using the Web and more websites launching, the number of search queries grew, too. In 1998, Google reported 3.6 million search queries per year, but by 2012, that number had grown to 1.2 trillion annually.

Via WhoIsHostingThis.com

The Internet Then and Now

The Internet Then and Now infographic from WhoIsHostingThis? was first published on the Newstex blog in June 2013. It provides a timeline view of the growth of the Internet since it's earliest days in 1969. It also includes some interesting statistics about the growth of mobile content consumption. In 1971, Motorola launched the first handheld mobile phone, and by 2009, 31% of Americans used their cell phones to go online. Today, there are 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide.

Via Who Is Hosting This

Traditional Journalism: Is It Old News?

How is technology changing the way people consume news? That is the question answered in the Traditional Journalism: Is It Old News? infographic from WorldWideLearn, which was first published on the Newstex blog in June 2013. According to the data in the infographic, daily newspapers cut staffs by 25% between 2006 and 2011. Today, over 50% of tablet and smartphone users get news on their mobile devices each week and 33% get news on their mobile devices every day.

It's hard to believe the Internet has been around for such a short amount of time in the form we know it today, and it's even harder to believe that sites like Twitter and Facebook haven't even been around for a full decade yet. The growth of the Web and social media has forever changed the way we consume media and news.What will the next 10 years bring?

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Courtesy of: WorldWideLearn.com

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