The Internet

Why is it that when smart, informed technology people need to say “the internet” they always substitute a more self-aware joke version like “interweb,” “internets,” “intertubes” or “infotubes”? Or a phrase so verbose and formal that it mocks itself (“the information superhighway,” “the world wide web” etc.). It’s interesting because it’s not that web people do it, it’s that web people do it every time they mean to say “the internet.”

I’m not sure if this is some attempt to distance oneself from the inherent nerdery of the internet and therefore the inherent nerdery of oneself or to not sound like some middle-america soccer mom by attempting to imitate what we think they sound like. It’s strange because most web people are proud of their web nerd status. Maybe it’s an attempt to not sound trite (even though the effect is sounding even more trite)? Or maybe it’s a wink at the other web people because the term “internet” is actually way way way too broad to really take seriously?

I don’t know for sure, but it’s an interesting phenomenon because I don’t think a single “web person” I know has ever genuinely said “the internet.”