How does the internet work, from your device to a website?

The internet is like a big, fast message-passing game between your device and a website.

Imagine you have a toy phone, and you want to talk to a friend who has a toy phone too. You say “hello” into your toy phone, and it sends the message across a toy telephone line until it reaches your friend’s toy phone, that’s how talking on the phone works!

The internet is like a giant version of that toy telephone line, but instead of just voices, it sends messages, like pictures, videos, or words, from one place to another.

When you type www. coolwebsite. com into your phone or computer, it’s like saying “I want to talk to Cool Website!” Your device then sends a message through the internet asking for information from that website. The website gets the message and sends back what you need, like a fun picture or a game.

It all happens very fast, almost like magic, but really, it's just your device and the website playing their own version of the toy phone game!