The internet isn’t what we think. It is physical, subject to the vagaries of nature and time, just as our bodies are. Like us, it will flicker and fade. The internet’s fragility crops up everywhere: in the sudden disappearance of a relied-upon website, and in the endless thrum of posts, images, and videos.
It’s not a metaphor. It’s a completely abused technical term. Network engineer use a cloud symbol for servers not on prem and say that those servers are “in the cloud”. Then marketing overheard that the rest is history.
i mean, that is still a metaphor.