Offline: What is the internet?

Paul Miller considers the internet.

My sister helps take care of a 7-year-old, who recently asked “what is the internet?” It’s a good question. She (the 7-year-old) thought it meant computers and phones. I remember chuckling at the expense of elders who thought the Internet Explorer icon on their desktop was the internet. Will a future generation chuckle at me while I maintain a concept of the internet that was conceived in the dial-up era? Back then, the internet was something you’d “connect” to, and then “disconnect” from when your session was over and your parents wanted you to free up the phone line and go outside for once in my life. How simple and carefree we were.