Every machine on the the Internet has a unique number assigned to it, called an IP address. Without a unique IP address on your machine, you will not be able to communicate with other devices, users, ...
An Internet Protocol address is a number that identifies a device in a network, though the term is often used to refer to a device on the Internet itself. An IP address is vital for transferring data ...
The majority of the time, we have no idea what the IP addresses of our devices are. You don't need to know that your phone has an IP address of 192.168.1.12 on your local network in order to use it.