5 things that wouldn’t exist without the web

25 years ago today, Sir Tim Berners-Lee had an idea for what would eventually become the world wide web. Since then, we’ve seen the likes of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook and countless other companies – including our own – change the way we live our lives.

But what if the world wide web never existed? Our lives would probably be very different. Here are the five things that would probably never happened without it.

1. Social Media

The world wide web gave birth to social media. Whether it’s a sending selfie or checking in on a night out, it has changed the way we connect with people. Music, videos, holiday photos or ambiguous status updates – we now share more information about ourselves than ever before. What would you do without it?

2. LOL Cats

They’re so cute. Playing piano. Being asleep, angry, happy or sad. There’s a cat for all occasions. We don’t know why we love them but we do. And it’s thanks to the world wide web that we can share them with our friends. The world would be a lot less dog without the LOL cat.

3. Online gaming 

From Call of Duty to Candy Crush, or Flappy Bird to FIFA. Thanks to the world wide web you can play games online from your device, or against players from around the globe. Makes Tetris feel like a long time ago, doesn’t it?

4. The smartphone

It’s the remote control to our lives, connecting us to the online world. In fact, we spend an average of two hours a day on our phones. Not to mention all the apps we use. But how smart would phones really be if they didn’t have access to the world wide web? How different would they look today?

5. Online Dating

Come here often? Once a taboo subject, online dating has now sky-rocketed into the mainstream as the way for busy people to meet their perfect partner. Around nine million singletons in the UK currently use some kind of online dating site. Without the world wide web, we’d be back to picking up in bars.

What do you think you’d miss if the world wide web never existed?

Tweet your thoughts @o2 using the hashtag #web25