"Internets" is used as shorthand for cluelessness about the Internet or about technology in general. It gained widespread currency when President George W. Bush referred to "the Internets" in the 2nd Presidential Debate with Senator John Kerry on October 8, 2004. The exact exchange, taken from a transcript at Wikisource, is reproduced below:

AUDIENCE QUESTION: Mr. President, since we continue to police the world, how do you intend to maintain a military presence without re-instituting a draft?
BUSH: Yes, great question. Thanks.

I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft. We're not going to have a draft, period. The all-volunteer Army works. ...

By coincidence, "internets" was already part of an obscure catchphrase on the Something Awful Forums, "Oh no! I have five internets open!" In this earlier usage, the "internets" referred to multiple browser windows as interpreted by a computer neophyte, rather than a collective term for the Internet, as Bush apparently meant to use it.

See Also

• Interweb
• Bushism

External Links

• http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/internets.php Flash file of the actual quote from the President
• http://wikisource.org/wiki/2004_U.S._Presidential_Debate_-_October_8 Transcript of the second 2004 Presidential Debate