I'm trying to understand this concept better. Is the whole point of server side programming is to allow us to communicate with others? Whether it is to get new ideas or to get data that can't be stored locally on the client because it would be way too much information?
There are several typical software architectures:
Here, client is typically the part of the application that is executing on the user's computer, which the user is interacting with. Server is defined as the part of the application that user is not interacting directly, and is not on his computer but somewhere else. This separation can be for any of a number of reasons: data size, data security, data availability, or simply coordination.
For example, when you go to Google on your web browser, the web browser is a client. Google is the server. Your computer does not know where everything on the Web is; but Google has a pretty good idea.
For another example, if you play MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, your game is the client, and Blizzard's computers are the server; you tell the server what you are doing, and the server tells you the results, just like a pen-and-paper gamemaster. Without the server, you couldn't know what everyone else is doing.
Or, if you want to consult the atomic clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory, again, you are the client, the clock is the server; you contact it because, obviously, you don't know the correct time, and it does.
Now, for example, you might say that server might not be needed in some cases. For example, in the MMORPG case, couldn't the players contact each other directly? The first problem is discoverability: how would they find each other on the Internet? There has to be some central location to tell everyone everyone else's address. But if that is all the server did, you would have to contact all of the online players (and there are a lot of them) to ask them where they are, and if they are on the same map ask them the same question very very often; your internet connection would not be able to do it. There is also security to consider: a server makes sure (or should make sure) that you are not teleporting around on the map by changing the game's code and telling other player bogus values. For example, if client was responsible for remembering how much gold a player has, it would be trivial to become very rich very quickly: just lie about it to others.