How do you explain Internet to a layman?

space: How do you explain Internet to a layman?
Internet has progressed by leaps and bounds.
How do you explain today’s Internet to a layman, who know nothing about Internet?

Answers and Views:

Answer by DJ Ernie
Don’t wake him up.

Answer by Pete Mcgeape
the basics, how to use it, ISP (internet service providers) the things you need to know in order to use it. Most people catch on pretty well to it.

Answer by Prince
In my opinion explaining the Internet is simple as long as the layman is familiar with what a computer is. The Internet is basically an ‘x’ number of computers that are connected together. These computers host a variety of information in the form of ‘websites’. These websites can be static or interactable. Because the Internet is basically a collection of computers that are hooked together, people can interact with each other using the Internet as a medium. That should be a good start.

PS: Forgot about telling them how you can shop, send gifts etc

Answer by Andrew S
It would depend on the level of detail needed. I would start with datagrams and routing methodologies since those are pretty fundamental, then up to at least the transport layer. Most of the time I’d probably extend that showing how it relates to the different application layer services but equally I can envisage people being more interested in the physical and data link side of things.

Astronomy and space?