The internet is often imagined as something wireless and weightless, but its real backbone is intensely physical: fiber-optic cables, routers, exchange points, and enormous data centers. Much of global traffic moves through undersea cables laid across ocean floors.

This matters because digital life depends on physical infrastructure. Streaming, email, remote work, banking, and cloud software all rely on a network of machines and cables most users never see. The virtual world runs on steel, glass, silicon, and electricity.

Reference:

Wikipedia: Internet backbone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_backbone