Where Did Our Cybercafés Go?
The outset set of Telecenters effectually the globe were established in the 1990s owing to the need to span the gap that the internet revolution had created. They were prepare in many developing countries and served equally an intervention enabled by ICT to achieve rural development. As development projects, the aim was that they would inspire education and communal employ of facilities so as to strengthen social connections and growth among communities.
Between the belatedly 90s and well into the early on 2000s, Telecenters became popularly known as Cybercafés in Nigeria and went on to play a huge role in the lives of many Nigerians, especially Teenagers. Information technology was the "IT" place where all the Tech-savvy people in the neighbourhood met to satisfy one tech need or the other. A few cybercafés even incorporated phone call centres; VIP cubicles for customers who needed privacy; and computer classes for people looking to get "Y2K" compliant. Information technology was indeed an interesting time that saw the bloom of many ICT centred businesses as they quickly became a meeting point for professional, academic and recreational users of internet services.
I got my first practical computer lessons from i that wasn't besides far from where we lived and I retrieve how excited I was the day my tutor appear that we would exist creating email accounts, I was 13years quondam at the time. I afterwards learned how to research information online, then went on to sign up for as many newsletters, create a Hi5 page and register on whatever other websites I could find just so that I had tons of emails waiting for me in my inbox whenever I got around to checking it. I became a lover of cybercafés from then on and would save part of my pocket money and then that the coming Saturday, I could afford a one hour slot which cost well-nigh 100naira back and so.
The blackberry surge era notwithstanding, caused peoples' demand for cybercafé services to plunge. This was because the Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) package provided users with unlimited monthly data (which was later reviewed to limited packages) to scan, conversation and enjoy other social media services. People could finally access more than of the Information they needed on the get, at their ain convenience and with the added advantage of privacy. Cybercafés soon became places where most people went to work with their laptops, print/scan documents, brand photocopies, etc.
Today, the trend continues at the disservice of cybercafés equally more people are able to beget smartphones, broadband connections, laptops and machines that combine impress/browse/copy in i gadget. The existing cybercafés have had to delve into/incorporate other in-need services like game betting and football viewing centres or rely on people's "afterthought" need for their ICT services. Many children these days are raised with tablets and other gadgets which they abound well accustomed to earlier they go teenagers, hence eradicating the need for the sort of basic computer preparation that people like me had to pay to get.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned progress abroad from cybercafés, many rural communities nevertheless require their services. Some communities still depend on them to savour net access, accomplish computer literacy and in most cases charge their phones and so they can stay in touch with the world. It becomes apparent that the hereafter of cybercafés in Nigeria lies in their power to evolve to accommodate people'southward current demand.
Although this reinvention might change the idea of cybercafés equally nosotros in one case knew, it still provides businesses with a chance to provide ICT services and serve as the social connexion centres that they have always been. Information technology is still pertinent that the desire to keep cybercafés in existence does not stop us from accepting when and where nosotros need to give up the thought of its relevance. Regardless of what plow the time to come takes, there is no uncertainty that cybercafés would remain an important function of Nigeria's history and journey with ICT.
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Source: https://www.click042.com/features/opinion/where-did-our-cybercafes-go/
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