The people responsible for the entries in the "Associated Press Stylebook" are changing up the game for grammar nerds everywhere, announcing Saturday that Internet will be spelled as "internet" starting June 1.
It isn't just the Internet that will be getting the lowercase treatment. Starting June 1, Web will also no longer be capitalized. However, between the two terms, the word Internet, coincidentally, has the Internet most riled up.
In a tweet, the AP offered a graphic of the definition of the word while featuring "internet" in lowercase, which reads: "A decentralized, worldwide network of computers that can communicate with each other. The World Wide Web, like email, is a subset of the internet. They are not synonymous and should not be used interchangeably in stories."
We will lowercase internet effective June 1, when the 2016 Stylebook launches. #ACES2016 pic.twitter.com/nGz63zc5YP
— AP Stylebook (@APStylebook) April 2, 2016
From a historical standpoint, the change makes sense for the most part. Originally, Internet was capitalized because it referred to the global network derived from the Pentagon's ARPANET, which is considered to be the technological foundation for the Internet. As such, it was deemed a proper noun and, for the most part, proper nouns are capitalized. Changing the term to "internet" serves to reflect the AP's modern understanding of the word, i.e. "a worldwide network of computers."
Of course, the change has been met with some resistance, and contrary to what one might expect from a place where honest discussion can devolve quite quickly, the conversation was civil and well thought out - for the most part.
"Bad call, folks - ask any network engineer the difference between 'an internet' and 'the Internet,'" @wesmorgan1 said.
"There is and can be only one Internet," tweeted @robotterror. "Lesser interoperable networks are individually 'an internet.' Embarrassing."
"DON'T LET THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA STEAL OUR CAPITAL LETTERS!" declared @BillStewart415 in all caps.
The change wasn't without supporters though, at least one of which simply appreciated the change due to the convenience it offers.
"The fact is, decapitalizing internet is part of a universal linguistic tendency to reduce the amount of effort required to produce and process commonly used words," wrote Wired's Susan C. Herring. "Not only does decapitalization save a click of the shift key, but, as one marketing website put it, 'Capital letters are speed bumps for the eyes when reading.'"
Regardless of what anyone has to say, the Associated Press isn't about to change its ways. It remained adamant in 2010 when it ruled that "web site" would become "website" and again in 2011 when "e-mail" became just "email." Not to mention the time when the Internet called out AP's 2014 decision to have "over" and "more than" be used interchangeably.
