"No, the internet is not an airplane"

During our afternoon tea time one of the kids asked me what I had been doing when she saw me on the computer...
"I was sending an email." Blank stares.
"An email is like a letter you send over the internet." (More blank stares.)
"Do you know what the internet is?"
"No."
"What do you think it is?"
The kids' responses : a television, a radio, an airplane, a microphone, a mobile phone, a switchboard, and finally Angela remembered a definition she had memorized in school that the internet is "many computers connected to one main computer." (However she has no idea what this means.)

The conversation was quite entertaining to say the least but also refreshing. Except for an understanding that the internet must have something to do with technology, they don't know what it is and they don't care. For them the internet does not exist and they are perfectly content playing outside all day. I've also been teaching Litu (19 years old) about how to use the internet which has been interesting. I love her description of the internet : "It's like you catch the whole world in your lap."