The World Wide Web vs. the Printing Press

In aiding the spread of knowledge throughout the world, the printing press most definitely reigns supreme, not for just its singular efforts, but for the inventions that would not have been possible without it. One of these inventions, though it came a long time after, and is a far cry from the printing press, is the World Wide Web. Since its growth in public in the 1990s, the Internet has become as much a part of some peoples' lives as food and sleep is (no exaggeration there). Just the same as the printing press did, the Internet has both broadened the world. to the single person's eye, and made it smaller (figuritively) as a whole. Almost anything one could want to know is available at any time, almost anywhere. Many businesses rely on it, artists use it to get discovered and to spread their work, many people get their world news from it. One can meet a friend from France, or from Australia or China, or anywhere one can think of, without having to leave their home. Though the Internet can be dangerous in a lot of ways (ie. people maybe rely too much on it), its rewards are both countless and undisputable, and only time will tell whether or not it will be able to compete with the printing press for influence.