Editing Internet relationship (section)

== Technological advances ==
According to J. Michael Jaffe, author of ''Gender, Pseudonyms, and CMC: Masking Identities and Baring Souls'', "the Internet was originally established to expedite communication between governmental scientists and defense experts, and was not at all intended to be the popular 'interpersonal mass medium' it has become",<ref name="Jaffe2">{{cite web|url=http://www.fragment.nl/mirror/Jaffe1995/|title=Gender, Pseudonyms, and CMC: Masking Identities and Baring Souls|last=Jaffe|first=J. Michael|publisher=University of Michigan|work=Paper for 45th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, 1995, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA|access-date=26 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120901232435/http://www.fragment.nl/mirror/Jaffe1995/|archive-date=1 September 2012}}</ref> yet new and revolutionary devices enabling the mass public to communicate online are constantly being developed and released.

Rather than having many devices for different uses and ways of interacting, communicating online is more accessible and cheaper by having an Internet function built into one device, such as [[mobile phone]]s, [[Tablet computer|tablets]], [[laptop]]s, and [[smartphone]]s. Other ways of communicating online with these devices are via services and applications such as [[Email]], [[Skype]], [[iChat]], [[instant messaging]] programs, [[social networking service]]s, asynchronous discussion groups, online games, [[virtual worlds]] and the [[World Wide Web]].

Some of these ways of communicating online are asynchronous (meaning not in real time), such as [[YouTube]] and some are synchronous (immediate communication), such as [[Twitter]]. Synchronous communication occurs when two or more participants are interacting in real time via voice or text chat.<ref name="Wood, A and Smith, M.2">{{cite book|title=Online communication: linking technology, identity and culture|last1=Wood|first1=Andrew F.|last2=Smith|first2=Matthew J.|publisher=Erlbaum|year=2001|isbn=978-0-8058-3731-5|location=Mahwah, NJ [u.a.]|page=37}}</ref>