Should you be capitalizing the word internet?

Internet BackgroundI know I just gave you a big clue on my position in the title. Alas, I am technically wrong.  Oh the shame.

Such esteemed guides as the American Psychological Association, the Chicago Manual of Style, and Webster’s New World College Dictionary all disagree with me.

In the article, Should You Be Capitalizing the Word ‘Internet’?, the argument is that the big Internet is different from local (little i) internets and if you don’t understand the difference  you are showing your technical ignorance. But that isn’t really true.

The Internet is a bunch of different protocols that grew out of the ARPANET from the 80’s and what you are reading this article on. An internet is actually called internetworking and is the process of connecting two or more different networks to each other. Which sort of describes the Internet. We could nitpick this to death but as the article states, it is only a matter of time before “the Internet” turns into “the internet”.

Check out the full interesting article, and let me know your views on the big I or little i.

Should You Be Capitalizing the Word ‘Internet’?

Funny note, as I am typing this up spell check keeps trying to correct me. If I type the plural “internets”, spell check wants to capitalize it, but it likes the singular internet as small cap.

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