“How Does The Internet Work?”: 25 Simple Things That Still Baffle People

The internet is filled with curious minds, each with their own set of confounding questions. On Reddit, a user recently posed a simple yet thought-provoking question: “What’s something that no matter how it’s explained to you, you just can’t understand how it works?”

#1

Image source: n0dust0llens, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)

I’ll go, for me it’s the whole transformation from caterpillars to butterflies. I understand what they DO but it’s the most alien s**t ever that a worm just decides to rearrange itself into a winged creature that looks nothing like it did before.

#2

Image source: babyallenbunch, SHVETS production/Pexels (not the actual photo)

How some people can have no inner dialogue. And how can those people have thoughts or ideas? I don’t get it.

#3

Image source: jane66x, Transocean Berlin

Quantum mechanics. No matter how many times it’s explained, the idea that particles can exist in multiple states at once or influence each other instantaneously across vast distances just feels like nature’s most elaborate inside joke that I’m not quite in on.

#4

Image source: deanstreat, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Why America doesn’t provide healthcare & schooling to their citizens.

#5

Image source: vksdann, Owen.outdoors/Pexels (not the actual photo)

How Trump can still be allowed to run for President.
Any regular guy saying the things he constantly says in any post, podcast or YouTube video and the guy would be cancelled instantly. Old orange full of money says the same things “let’s make him President again!” I guess? I am not sure I will ever understand.

#6

Image source: VVinstonVVolfe, Sam Kolder/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Space, it’s so big that it is unfathomable and I think it’s expanding?! Into what? How did it start? It’s all a mindf**k .

#7

Image source: foxylady315, DSD/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Why after thousands of years of history behind us, people still suck. You’d think we’d be improving but no, sometimes it feels like we’re actually getting worse.

#8

Image source: DrPeterVankman, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)

My health insurance

You mean I have to pay every time I use it even though I pay monthly? Unless I pay a big amount then I pay less? But if I don’t use it they just keep it all? But they don’t cover my teeth or my eyes?

#9

Image source: -invalid-user-name-, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wtifAGsV3k/Youtube (not the actual photo)

How a basic wax record and player works. I get it’s a grove that is tiny hills and valleys and the needle picks up on each little one but how the f**k does that equal a voice coming out of a large metal tube. It’s witchcraft as far as im concerned.

#10

Image source: misanthrope2327, The Sleep Judge/Flickr (not the actual photo)

Folding a fitted sheet is f*****g impossible.

#11

The electoral college. No matter how it’s explained to me, it will never make sense to me that we award arbitrary points to states over going what the majority of voters want.

Image source: shbeesh

#12

Image source: Young_lovey18, Oleksandr P/Pexels (not the actual photo)

How my pet seems to know when I’m sad and tries to comfort me.

#13

Image source: TangyCornIceCream, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)

How airplanes can be so big and heavy and fly.

#14

Image source: jennylouwoo, TIVASEE/Pexels (not the actual photo)

How a chicken can make a whole egg everyday! I’m always just blown away

Everyday. A whole new egg. And sometimes two a day! Why is this not talked about more?! Lol.

#15

Image source: New_Chard9548, MART PRODUCTION/Pexels (not the actual photo)

So many things & all these answers are just adding more to the list ?.

Brains are insane to me…like every human is virtually made of the same things, we all have a brain etc, but everyone’s brain is so ridiculously different from others & then when you bring in things like mental illness / dementia- why do some brains go through that and others don’t? Why isn’t there a better way to help/ reverse/ stop progression.

#16

Image source: Equizotic, HULU

How NFTs work. Even Futurama couldn’t help me understand.

#17

Image source: happyday752, RF._.studio/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Healthcare bills – they are engineered to not be understood.

#18

I’m a classically trained singer and will never understand how I can think of a certain pitch and then recreate it accurately.

Image source: gris_lightning

#19

Image source: Gracelovey12, Cats Coming/Pexels (not the actual photo)

How my cat always knows exactly when I’m about to sit down with a snack.

#20

Image source: Lilutka, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Universe is expanding. Expanding to where? .

#21

Image source: FoilHattiest, gameranx

How when I’m playing an FPS game in Europe and aiming my gun at another players head who’s in the US and pulling the trigger, electrical impulses are (roughly speaking) sent from my mouse to my computers motherboard to its CPU which makes the decision to forward it to my network card which sends it to my router to my 5G antenna, then through the air to a recieving cell phone tower a mile down the road, then down into the ground through cables again (I’m assuming) through the entire country to some major European backbone hub, then down into deep sea cables under the entire f*****g Atlantic ocean, through the same whole bunch of cables and switches and relay stations through HIS country as well and finally into his computer where he dies from the bullet a FRACTION OF A SECOND later.

And then we all complain about the lag and the high pings because the internet is just so f*****g slow today.

But anyway it’s not so much that I don’t understand how this all works technically, I do but I just can’t wrap my head around how the information is able to travel as fast as it does for as far as it does. It’s not just the distance itself but also just the sheer amount of devices and things the data packets have to enter and exit on the way, with computer chips running software making logical decisions on how to recieve it, analyse it and send it on its way again over and over and over again. And all of this doesn’t even take a single second from start to end. Not even half of one.

I dunno it’s just mindboggling to me.

#22

Image source: random5654, paramountpictures

That scene from Interstellar when they go to the planet for a bit, then get back to the ship and the dudes many years older. Why time passes quicker in different places in space.

#23

Image source: LadyCordeliaStuart, Brianna Laugher/Flickr (not the actual photo)

Computer!! You take the rock!! You pound it into metal ore or something!! You put the metal together with some stringy bits of copper or idk whatever goes into circuits!! You run electricity through it!! It does math??? It’s a rock!! How it does math?!?!?!??

Edit: if I had a 1 and a 0 for everyone who has explained computers to me based on this post I could build MULTIVAC.

#24

Image source: parkbench23, Olga Lioncat/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Black holes. Space in general, but black holes really get to me. So strong that light and other stars/planets can’t escape it? Where does it all go?!!

#25

Image source: Ola_maluhia, Lisa Fotios/Pexels (not the actual photo)

I don’t get how cell phones work. I get it. I don’t. How can I speak to my family in the Middle East on FaceTime without any sort of cords. My mind cannot fathom

Update: wow I thought waking up this morning I’d just put on my scrubs and it would be another day on the psych ward.

Just wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you for providing so many amazing explanations. For not being rude, or trolls or making me feel dumb about this. I had an old account I had to get rid of, I have been on Reddit for nearly 10 years. This is the most positive experience I’ve ever had. Thank you!