What is The Internet?

It is a global system of computer networks that communicate using the TCP/IP protocol suite, originally descended from ARPANET.

Where did The Internet come from?

From ARPANET, whose first node went online when BBN delivered an IMP to UCLA on August 30, 1969.

What does The Internet mean?

In practice, 'the internet' now refers both to the TCP/IP network and to the web-based culture layered on top of it.

How do you use The Internet?

Culturally, writers invoke 'the internet' as a collective subject, often with the 'series of tubes' joke when mocking a bad technical take.

Is The Internet still popular?

Internet access grew from under 1% of the world population in 1995 to about 40% by 2014, reaching three billion users that year.

What was the first internet meme?

Godwin's Law, coined by Mike Godwin on Usenet in 1990, is widely credited as the first self-identified internet meme.

Where does the word 'spam' come from?

From a Monty Python sketch; Usenet and IRC users adopted it in the early 1990s for repetitive junk messages.

What was the first spam?

A 1978 ARPANET message from DEC marketer Gary Thuerk advertising a new DEC-20 machine, which drew sharp replies at the time.

When was the World Wide Web proposed?

On March 12, 1989, when Tim Berners-Lee circulated 'Information Management: A Proposal' at CERN.

What is the Internet Archive?

A free digital library founded by Brewster Kahle in 1996 that preserves websites, media and public-domain books.

The Internet

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Published October 1, 2026

The Internet is the global TCP/IP network that grew out of ARPANET's 1969 debut and expanded over 100x through the 1990s1 2. Beyond the plumbing, it spawned the earliest recognized internet memes, from Godwin's Law to the word 'spam' itself, and houses nearly every meme format cataloged since.

early internet memes internet meta memes internet laws usenet origin memes internet archaeology memes

Overview

Know Your Meme treats The Internet less as a single joke and more as the hosting medium for every joke that followed, with a long entry that walks from ARPANET through net neutrality and conceptual art projects3. The entries bundled under its umbrella include the first widely cited internet meme (Godwin's Law), the first widely cited piece of internet jargon (spam), and the policy fights that shaped how memes travel, from SOPA to CISPA3. The through-line is that each item was coined, debated or weaponized on the network itself, which is why net culture tends to date everything from the 1990s Usenet era forward.

The cultural tone around 'the internet' as a subject swings between reverence and mockery. Early folklore like the BBN engineer's 'Do it to it, Truett' message, scrawled on the crate holding the first Interface Message Processor shipped to UCLA, gets passed around as origin trivia1. At the other end, Senator Ted Stevens' 2006 description of the network as 'a series of tubes' became a running joke, with Urban Dictionary top entries defining The Internet as exactly that4. Both strands coexist in the way the term is used today.

By raw numbers, the subject outgrew its own folklore. In 1995 under 1% of the world population had an internet connection; by 2014 that figure was close to 40%, with the first billion users reached in 2005, the second in 2010 and the third in 20145. Those thresholds tracked, roughly, the eras memes themselves scaled through: Usenet, blog-era web, and mobile social platforms.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

ARPANET (origin) / Usenet and the Web (meme culture)

Date

1969

The ARPANET, the direct forerunner of the Internet, went live on August 30, 1969, when BBN delivered the first Interface Message Processor to Leonard Kleinrock's Network Measurements Center at UCLA1. The first host-to-host connection came that October, between the UCLA machine and Douglas Engelbart's NLS system at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park3. The word 'internet' itself appeared as shorthand for 'internetworking' in a 1974 paper co-authored by Vinton Cerf, Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine3.

The web layer most people now equate with 'the internet' arrived two decades later. On March 12, 1989, Tim Berners-Lee circulated the proposal titled 'Information Management: A Proposal' at CERN, which became the blueprint for the World Wide Web6. ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990 and the first web page went live the same year7, with full commercialization of the Internet following in 19953.

How It Spread

The first wave of recognizable net culture formed on Usenet in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The word 'spam,' borrowed from a Monty Python sketch, took hold among Usenet and IRC users as a label for repetitive junk postings; the earliest documented mass commercial message is a 1978 ARPANET pitch from DEC marketer Gary Thuerk, which drew a reaction thread that reads much like modern spam complaints8. In 1990 attorney Mike Godwin coined what became Godwin's Law on Usenet, often cited as the first self-identified internet meme3.

The commercial 1990s layered institutions on top. The first Webby Awards were held in 1995 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, with winners famously held to five-word acceptance speeches3. Brewster Kahle founded the Internet Archive in 1996 as a free public library of web pages, audio, video and public-domain books3. In 2001, computer scientist Michael Bergman's Journal of Electronic Publishing paper 'The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value' coined 'deep web' for the portion of the network not indexed by search engines3.

The 2000s and 2010s shifted the story to policy and image boards. Caturday, the Saturday cat-image tradition, began on 4chan's /b/ in 2005 and is credited as the first of the internet theme days3. Protect IP Act and SOPA were introduced in 2011, drawing coordinated blackouts and shelving in January 2012; CISPA followed in the House in 2012 and passed there in April 2013 before stalling in the Senate3. In May 2013, Kenneth Goldsmith launched 'Printing Out The Internet' at the LABOR gallery in Mexico City as a memorial to activist Aaron Swartz, collecting more than 10 tons of printed pages from over 20,000 contributors by August 31, 20139.

Timeline

1969-08-30

BBN delivers the first Interface Message Processor to UCLA, with the ARPANET going live days later[1].

1978

DEC marketer Gary Thuerk sends an ARPANET mass message now cited as the first spam[8].

1989-03-12

Tim Berners-Lee submits 'Information Management: A Proposal' at CERN, the blueprint for the World Wide Web[6].

1990

ARPANET is decommissioned, Mike Godwin coins Godwin's Law on Usenet, and the first web page is posted[7][3].

1995

The Internet is fully commercialized and the first Webby Awards are held in Hollywood[3].

1996

Brewster Kahle founds the Internet Archive as a free digital library[3].

2001-08

Michael Bergman coins 'deep web' in a Journal of Electronic Publishing paper[3].

2005

First billion internet users reached; Caturday begins on 4chan's /b/[5][3].

2012-01

SOPA/PIPA voting shelved after coordinated web blackouts[3].

2013-07-26

'Printing Out The Internet' opens at LABOR gallery in Mexico City in memory of Aaron Swartz[9].

2019-03-12

Google publishes a Doodle marking the 30th anniversary of the WWW proposal[3].

How to Use This Meme

Writers invoke 'the internet' as a collective agent, as in 'the internet decided' or 'the internet is undefeated,' usually when a crowd reaction, remix wave or pile-on is the actual subject. The 'series of tubes' line is still used ironically whenever someone, often a lawmaker, fumbles a technical explanation4. For dated references, net citizens commonly reach back to Godwin's Law when a thread drifts toward Nazi comparisons, treating the invocation itself as a thread-ender3.