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Four reasons why American media should lowercase 'Internet'

When the style desks of The New York Times and the Associated Press finally issue a press release about the need to start lowercasing Internet, we will know that America has finally woken up to web-based reality.

We don’t capitalize words like radio or television or motion pictures anymore, do we? Regarding the Internet, we are still behind the curve, behind the British, lost in capitalization land. We need to play catch up. Now.

Here are four reasons to lowercase “Internet”:

2. The Internet isn’t a brand, like Kleenex

  • By Dan Bloom

The capitalization of Internet earlier in history effectively said that going online meant using a brand-name product, when it didn't. Capping Internet turns it into a privately-owned brand – not tissue, but Kleenex. But the way we use and know it, the Internet is a tissue. It's not a Kleenex.

As Turow said, "The Internet, at least philosophically, should not be owned by anyone." He calls it "part of the neural universe of life."

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