What would our life without Internet be like?
Imagine one day you wake up and no Internet is available. Is this the end of the world?
Would the Internet leave you in a state of shock? Yes. What would you do without Google Maps in a foreign city? Absolutely clueless. If you couldn’t pay for your lunch with your credit card? cannot even imagine that. Can you literally exist without playing games or freelancing to make tons of money at home with your favorite Wave broadband internet? A big no!
A digital detox of this kind might be helpful. Maybe. Who knows?!
We would take our eyes off the screens and talk to each other face-to-face. Perhaps our smartphones would actually allow us to make phone calls. Fax machines would be brought back, and note-taking would again be done by hand.
The world would not come to an end. The vast majority of the world’s population would not notice the difference – in the short term – with almost 4 billion having no internet access. However, not you, incredible Internet user. That would be a big deal to you!
We would begin to call one another on the phone if the Internet suddenly went down, overloading telecommunications systems…
Provided there was no interruption of cell phone towers or telephone lines. You would then resume writing letters and posting them by mail. You would give up wireless file transfer. A physical cable would need to be used to connect two computers if there is no Wi-Fi. Or, you could use a CD.
Some people have almost turned this idea into an exercise in the Internet age. A www had to appear somewhere in web addresses when the World Wide Web was officially launched in 1991. In the following year, website-speak became popularized with expressions like “surfing the web.”
Would it be feasible to revive old habits and infrastructure?
Can they be revived?
Thousands of websites were launched online in two years, including offerings from the White House and the United Nations. The Internet has evolved from these baby steps into something that is almost living, at least to certain people. However, what would happen if it disappeared?
A world without the Internet would have some consequences that some generations would feel more strongly about. A grandparent 85 years of age may still prefer to call their grandchild on the old-fashioned landline rather than text them – a practice that many people today participate in dozens (or even hundreds) of times daily.
Say goodbye to texting, browsing websites, and social media. I believe that you would not have tweeted that last tweet about Justin Timberlake’s outfit at the Super Bowl halftime show if you knew that was your last tweet… Now think about the state of the economy.
Banking services are largely reliant on the Internet since financial data is typically stored on a server. Electronic transfers would not be possible. Credit cards and debit cards would cease to exist.
Rethink your payment methods.
Cash would be the only option.
Besides, those bitcoins you mined are going to waste. 85% of Americans, according to estimates, use the Internet at least semi-regularly. Online shopping and financial transactions have become an ever-increasing part of the global economy, not just for Facebook and Twitter.
The e-transfer system would be eliminated. Rent checks would need to be written by people to their landlords again. Many industries around the world would suffer billion-dollar losses.
The collapse of trade channels built around the online world would bring down less tech-savvy countries that rely heavily on the Internet.
In addition, Google, Facebook and Amazon would lose almost $5000 billion in combined revenue as a result of going out of business. The loss of Google’s 80,000 full-time employees would result in hundreds of thousands of job losses.
The Internet could even affect companies whose only method of advertising is through the Internet. Economic crisis would befall developed countries as a result of the loss of entire industries. Do those countries with little Internet presence have any hope?
We would consume more paper
Due to the Internet’s dependency on international trade, they would also be affected. Transit around the world is also a global phenomenon. We would have to use paper to track goods between planes, trains, ships ,and commercial trucks if we did not have Internet access.
Transporting goods to stores would become more complicated, which would increase their market value. It was at least possible for you to travel. The downside is that you will not be able to share your travel selfies on Instagram anymore. Have you ever wondered if it is even possible to shut down the Internet?
I wouldn’t say on a global scale. Internet and telephone communications have been intentionally shut down by some countries using a “kill switch.”
Although cutting off a few submarine cables is easier than killing the whole Internet, it is harder to kill the whole Internet. There are many different computer networks on the Internet, which is a global network. There is no single machine that depends on it. Regardless of whether one part of it went offline, other parts would continue to work.
Conclusion
In spite of the fact that the Internet isn’t the be-all and ends all of the human services, its disappearance would cause us to instantly change our way of living. The world wide web has become increasingly important to us in the 21st century, but as with all social developments, it comes with a dark side as well. It is not likely that we would be sleeping better, socializing more, or being more active if the web didn’t exist. A world without the internet would be free of cybercrime, cyberterrorism, and cyberbullying because the connectivity it produces is also exploited by those who wish to do us harm. In the end, Berners-Lee was right, the web has contributed to a better world. A beast of such magnitude will, however, only grow more difficult to tame.
