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One explanation I've heard uses analogy with other communication mediums. "Your voice sounds familiar. Have we spoken on the Telephone before?" "No, but I use

One explanation I've heard uses analogy with other communication mediums. "Your voice sounds familiar. Have we spoken on the Telephone before?" "No, but I used to be on the Radio."

lern_too_spel 11y ago
"Telephone" and "radio" are not proper nouns in your examples, unlike "the Internet," which refers to a specific internetwork. When using "internet" as a common noun to refer to any other internetwork, you should not capitalize according to the rules of English grammar. This style guide proposes an exception to grammar rules to fit common usage.
- towlejunior 11y ago
  Great, but why in the world (not capitalized) do you consider it a proper noun?
  - lern_too_spel 11y ago
    I consider it a proper noun because it fits the definition of a proper noun. In your sentence, "the world" is also a proper noun, but you didn't capitalize it for reasons of style, like the sun or the moon. To quote the AP style guide, "AP capitalizes the proper names of planets, including Earth, stars, constellations, etc., but lowercases sun and moon."
TeMPOraL 11y ago
The Internet is unlike radio and telephone. Radios and telephones are devices, you usually refer to the one you have nearby. The Internet is a specific global network - this word refers to the same single entity, unlike "telephone" and "radio".
- spdustin 11y ago
  I was 100% for the capitalization of internet until I read your comment. I think you just wrecked the analogy without realizing it. Your telephone is connected to a telephone network, which is an interconnected network of telephonic devices. Your device is one of many, and has no distinction from others except that it has a unique address in physical space and additionally has an address on the telephone network. Your radio picks up radio signals, a form of wireless mesh network throughout the world (add in signal repeaters used for trunking systems, etc), and you access it with your radio. In either case of common usage of devices we use to communicate, we don't capitalize the networks, nor do we capitalize the devices (usually, though walkie-talkie I've seen capitalized sometimes). You use a computer (maybe even the computer - still lowercase - if you have only one in your home) to access the interconnected network of computers to which it is designed to connect via some network adapter and routing device, possibly with a signal modulator/demodulator in there somewhere). That interconnected network of computers is no different from the interconnected network of radio signals used by trunking systems all over the world, or the interconnected network of telephone signals a POTS line brings to your home.
  - wrigby 11y ago
    I think it depends on the network - some have names (like the Internet, ARPANet, DoD's NIPRNet, etc) and some don't (like the global POTS network). Saying "we talked on the phone" is more like saying "we talked on the computer" than "we talked on the Internet."

One explanation I've heard uses analogy with other communication mediums. "Your voice sounds familiar. Have we spoken on the Telephone before?" "No, but I used to be on the Radio."

lern_too_spel 11y ago

"Telephone" and "radio" are not proper nouns in your examples, unlike "the Internet," which refers to a specific internetwork. When using "internet" as a common noun to refer to any other internetwork, you should not capitalize according to the rules of English grammar. This style guide proposes an exception to grammar rules to fit common usage.

towlejunior 11y ago
Great, but why in the world (not capitalized) do you consider it a proper noun?
- lern_too_spel 11y ago
  I consider it a proper noun because it fits the definition of a proper noun. In your sentence, "the world" is also a proper noun, but you didn't capitalize it for reasons of style, like the sun or the moon. To quote the AP style guide, "AP capitalizes the proper names of planets, including Earth, stars, constellations, etc., but lowercases sun and moon."

TeMPOraL 11y ago

The Internet is unlike radio and telephone. Radios and telephones are devices, you usually refer to the one you have nearby. The Internet is a specific global network - this word refers to the same single entity, unlike "telephone" and "radio".

spdustin 11y ago
I was 100% for the capitalization of internet until I read your comment. I think you just wrecked the analogy without realizing it. Your telephone is connected to a telephone network, which is an interconnected network of telephonic devices. Your device is one of many, and has no distinction from others except that it has a unique address in physical space and additionally has an address on the telephone network. Your radio picks up radio signals, a form of wireless mesh network throughout the world (add in signal repeaters used for trunking systems, etc), and you access it with your radio. In either case of common usage of devices we use to communicate, we don't capitalize the networks, nor do we capitalize the devices (usually, though walkie-talkie I've seen capitalized sometimes). You use a computer (maybe even the computer - still lowercase - if you have only one in your home) to access the interconnected network of computers to which it is designed to connect via some network adapter and routing device, possibly with a signal modulator/demodulator in there somewhere). That interconnected network of computers is no different from the interconnected network of radio signals used by trunking systems all over the world, or the interconnected network of telephone signals a POTS line brings to your home.
- wrigby 11y ago
  I think it depends on the network - some have names (like the Internet, ARPANet, DoD's NIPRNet, etc) and some don't (like the global POTS network). Saying "we talked on the phone" is more like saying "we talked on the computer" than "we talked on the Internet."