[Air-l] Internet -- Source or Medium?

[Richard Parent]

Maciej Kos raises an interesting question, and one that seems to get
at the heart of the changes in language and common usage.

It seems to me that we might really be talking about (at least) 2
things here: the internet (with large or small "i"), and the world
wide web.

The internet then can be thought of as a medium through and across
which we can access the content stored on the servers that comprise
the world wide web.

But as my (decidedly techno-fluent) undergraduate students recently
pointed out: they use the web and the internet every single day and
have no idea what the difference is between the internet and the web.

So, does this internet/web distinction still hold, or have we moved
onto some new paradigm?

Best wishes,
Richard Parent
University of Vermont