In the digital age, we’re so reliant on our devices and on the internet that it’s hard to imagine our lives without this helpful technology. But the reality is that computers and network connectivity have transformed our world in a very short amount of time. We weren’t always able to connect through screens and share information via URLs. Let’s take a look back at where we began — and how far we’ve come since then.

Although there are now more than 1 billion websites that exist on the world wide web, they all have one website to thank for their creation. The very first website was created on August 6, 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee. It actually offered what many websites still do: useful information. It was all about the internet itself, detailing how others could create web pages of their own and how to use hypertext.

We’ve definitely come a long way since those basic geocities websites. Having your own website wasn’t always seen as a necessity (or even a possibility) for many businesses and individuals. But now, it’s typically a non-negotiable. Web design is now more sophisticated and the marketplace is much more saturated. That’s thanks to advancements in technology and the increased accessibility of the internet in general.

In the 1990s and 2000s, having access to the internet or a cell phone was pretty rare. But as of June 2018, there are now 3.95 billion internet users all around the world. And a good portion of those users are rather young. People ages 15 to 24 represent nearly 25% of people who use the internet on a global scale.

Of course, it helps that mobile devices have become commonplace. The car phones of the past have been replaced with mini-computers (a.k.a. smartphones) that can access the internet with ease. It’s no surprise, then, that there were 3.7 billion global mobile internet users in January 2018. Mobile traffic is actually responsible for more than half of all internet traffic now, too. In 2018, it accounted for 52.2% of all internet traffic (an increase from 50.3% in 2017). While many of us still use personal computers and laptops to access the internet, it’s clear that the trend shows the majority of us conduct searches and visit sites from our mobile devices — and that’s likely not going to change any time soon.

Then again, if the last 27 years are any indication… the internet as we know it could change in the blink of an eye. So try to keep up — if you can.