How The Metaphor Of ‘The Cloud’ Changed Our Attitude Toward The Internet

“Around 2010, casual Internet users were introduced to the idea that the digital world around them could be understood in terms of the ‘cloud.’ As a metaphor, the cloud seems easy to grasp: our data is somewhere in the ether, floating, drifting and wireless, available wherever and whenever we need it. … [Yet] how did we come to place our faith in a symbol that is so ephemeral – all vapor and crystal?”