Do you capitalize "internet," or "the internet?"

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Ace Harding

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I do not, but I have come across a lot of people at work that insist on it. It just feels so dated, like something we'd do in the mid-90's. When I see it written like that I assume it was written by an old person.

I would say the internet, or internet-enabled or whatever - no capital I. Not "I was using the Internet on my Internet-enabled device."

I'm talking about professional business writing here, not emails and posting on forums and stuff.

Also what about email? Hyphen ("e-mail") or no?
 
"Internet" is a proper noun, so yes, I capitalize it. (Edit: I'm 19 if it matters.)

I tend to use the hyphen in "e-mail", but I don't have any real reason for this other than it being the way I learned the word.
 
Proper noun = capitalization, so Internet.

And I type email without the hyphen but I have no idea if that's technically correct or not.
 
I don't work at a formal enough of a place, so no. I also don't feel like internet is a proper noun any more, so I wouldn't even if I was in a formal workplace.
 
I would say "the Internet", referring to the World Wide Web, if using it as a proper noun.

I would say "internet services" or "internet friends" or whatever, without capitalization, if it's describing a category of something else, just as I would say "marsh flower" or "construction site" or "digital signature".
 
Jacob said:
"Internet" is a proper noun, so yes, I capitalize it. (Edit: I'm 19 if it matters.).
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Is it?

Just to point out there is no 100% agreement and either option is grammatically correct:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalization_of_"Internet"

Stumpokapow said:
I would say "the Internet", referring to the World Wide Web, if using it as a proper noun.

I would say "internet services" or "internet friends" or whatever, without capitalization, if it's describing a category of something else, just as I would say "marsh flower" or "construction site" or "digital signature".
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I guess I agree with this. If you are talking very specifically about THE Internet, then maybe you should capitalize it. But I hear people say it should always be capitalized, which I think looks silly.
 
I don't.
I don't have an issue with people who do.

However, I do think it looks incredibly stupid when people say any of the following:
Internets
Intertubes
Interwebs
The internets
The intertubes
The interwebs

It just reeks of people trying to sound clever and failing horribly.


EDIT: Also, I type it as "email," not "e-mail."
And, I'm 31, and have had the internet since 1996.
 
I don't capitalize internet. It would be like capitalizing highway, driveway, or canal. I do love reading old articles or finding old scanned boxes from foods that say "Visit our Web Page at http://www.link.com" or something along those lines. Seems like "Web Page" and "Internet" used to be capitalized consistently back in the 90s.
 
If I'm writing formally then yes, absolutely.

If I'm chatting in text or on a forum or something... HarrisonFordWhoGivesaShit.gif.
 
I noticed last night that the Xbox 360 dashboard capitalizes it. It says "Connect to the Internet to play online.....".

Even if it is correct, it didn't strike me as such.
 
I'm pretty sure there are:

a. The Internet - Proper noun. it's a type of internet. The one everyone around the world use for WWW, IRC, and everything.

b. internet - Common noun. IT networks, The largest of which is the Internet.
 
Soka said:
I do love reading old articles or finding old scanned boxes from foods that say "Visit our Web Page at http://www.link.com" or something along those lines.
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Don't forget to stop by AOL Keyword: Nintendo


Really, things aren't all that different now, with companies directing you to their Facebook page, Twitter account, etc. It's like we've gone backwards again from companies just having their own website to handle all their stuff without fragmenting everything.
 
Jacob said:
If you're talking about the specific global network that supports the World Wide Web, e-mail, and the like, then yes. If you're talking about the generic concept of large-scale computer networks, then no.
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There was a time when roller-blades and white-out were proper nouns. There was a time when phonogram was a proper noun. I think it's time to truncate the property of internet.
 
The Internet varies for me. Most of the time I capitalize it, but sometimes not. It is grammatically correct to capitalize it (when specifically talking about WWW), but I think it would about time to get rid of the capitalization.
 
It should be capitalized. People obviously don't, but there is no good justification not to. There are occasions where lowercase "interent" or "internets" would be appropriate, but they're pretty rare if you're not a networking professional.

Soka said:
I don't capitalize internet. It would be like capitalizing highway, driveway, or canal. I do love reading old articles or finding old scanned boxes from foods that say "Visit our Web Page at http://www.link.com" or something along those lines. Seems like "Web Page" and "Internet" used to be capitalized consistently back in the 90s.
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It should be "Web page", as "Web" is a shortened name for the World Wide Web, a singular thing that deserves its status as a proper noun, while a page is a common noun occurring in many instances.
 
terrisus said:
I don't.
I don't have an issue with people who do.

However, I do think it looks incredibly stupid when people say any of the following:
Internets
Intertubes
Interwebs
The internets
The intertubes
The interwebs

It just reeks of people trying to sound clever and failing horribly.
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I'm fairly sure that the other ways of saying internet are originally playing off of phrases from people who didn't know how to refer to the internet ("[...]The Internet is like a series of tubes[...]" and the like).
 
I think it's capitalized in the AP Stylebook, mean most news organizations spell it as "Internet." Usually they follow popular usage, so I guess capitalized it is. However, "website" is not. Fake edit: And that's mentioned in the wiki article posted up above.
 
Capitalizing 'internet' makes it come across as a new and special thing, and even if it is correct grammatically, it makes you look less savvy. Same with Email or e-mail, which are almost like baby steps toward 'the Google'.
 
AP style says to capitalize it. But the AP also recommended a dash in "email" until recently.

I suspect they will change it soon.
 
ColtraineGF said:
I'm fairly sure that the other ways of saying internet are originally playing off of phrases from people who didn't know how to refer to the internet ("[...]The Internet is like a series of tubes[...]" and the like).
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So, as I said, "It just reeks of people trying to sound clever and failing horribly."

Basically, the people saying it think they're making fun of/playing off of someone else, but in reality what they're saying just sounds stupid.
 
Internet. Always with a capital I. That's how I teach it.

E-mail or email, goes both ways. It's either personal preference or whatever your style guide tells you.
 
abe_bly said:
There was a time when roller-blades and white-out were proper nouns. There was a time when phonogram was a proper noun. I think it's time to truncate the property of internet.
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Roller blades, white out, and phonogram used to be capitalized because they were brand names, not because they were a single entity. Rather different situations.
 
Jacob said:
Roller blades, white out, and phonogram used to be capitalized because they were brand names, not because they were a single entity. Rather different situations.
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I see where you're coming from, but then why don't we capitalize things like the sky? The ocean? The Earth, Sun and Moon are supposed to be capitalized though, so it seems arbitrary to me.
 
abe_bly said:
I see where you're coming from, but then why don't we capitalize things like the sky? The ocean? The Earth, Sun and Moon are supposed to be capitalized though, so it seems arbitrary to me.
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Uh, we capitalize Pacific Ocean, we capitalize the Sun to refer to this Sun of this Solar System, we capitalize the Moon to distinquish it from other moons rotating other planets.
 
abe_bly said:
I see where you're coming from, but then why don't we capitalize things like the sky? The ocean? The Earth, Sun and Moon are supposed to be capitalized though, so it seems arbitrary to me.
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Well the sky isn't really a "thing", it's just what's above the Earth's surface after a certain point. "Atmosphere" would be a closer analogy, though that runs into the same problem as "Internet", in that it can refer to any gas layer over the surface of a planet, or it can refer specifically to Earth's. Likewise, "ocean" is uncapitalized if it's referring to the general concept, but if you're referring to an individual ocean or if you're of the mindset that all the oceans in the world are really part of a single Ocean (or World Ocean), then it would be capitalized.

I think you're right that actual usage of capitalization for any of these words can be pretty arbitrary, though, regardless of how they're "supposed" to be used.
 
Ekdrm2d1 said:
iNternet then?
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