Nothing has made me feel more like a graybeard recently than seeing people use “the internet” to mean social networking, or what people are saying to each other online, instead of the series of tubes and hardware and software that carry data packets from one networked device to another.
I know, I know. Language evolves, words mean what we mean them to mean, literally no longer means literally. All this is Good and Right and The Way Of The World.
Still though. You young whippersnappers, get off my lawn, uphill in the snow both ways.
@snarfed.org There was a time when Safari or Chrome was “the internet”. And then Facebook was “the internet”. So yes, language changes, and pretty much all regular people don’t care or even want to know about the plumbing that makes it work. Heck, most developers have extremely limited networking knowledge.
If people really want to know what the internet is, here is the definitive explanation I point them to: https://youtu.be/iDbyYGrswtg?si=s7ydG7Fxj1-I7oZs