Whether you want a street level view of a neighborhood in Paris or the latest news from your own community, you can find it all on the internet. News travels at the speed of typing, and doesn’t even take long when you’re confined to 140 characters on Twitter.

Beyond the news, you can find almost any product you could want on the internet, including merchandise from overseas. Better yet, checkout online reviews before you settle on a particular brand of crib for your child’s room. And when it’s time to put the crib together, count on the internet to provide instructional videos that show you exactly how to assemble that pile of wood and bolts sprawled across your little one’s nursery.

Aside from educating consumers on which brands to buy and how to put together almost any item that doesn’t arrive assembled, the internet also provides educational opportunities in a variety of fields. Many traditional universities now have a strong presence on the internet and offer online degrees; plenty of online educational programs have no physical campus, providing the full student experience exclusively in cyberspace.

For those who love humor, the internet is rife with comics and comic wannabes. Sites such as Cracked.com dish up videos, photos, and articles that will have you literally laughing out loud. On the other end of the emotional scale, people in mourning can come together to offer their memories and condolences to bereaved families through dedicated blogs, Facebook, and funeral home sites.

When you’re scrambling to throw together the sparse ingredients in your pantry, where else but the web can you go to find that special recipe that will let you pull them together into a tasty meal? And there’s a perk to recipe sharing online—you can come back later and review the recipe and even add your own tips for improving the process.

The ability to share content has revolutionized cooking, humor, and quite simply, everyday life!