What would the world today be like if the internet no longer existed?
@AmandaBarnhart (671)
Canada
February 23, 2009 10:10am CST
The title essentially explains itself. But my question to everyone is essentially what do you think the world would be like if the internet ceased to work? Do you think many would be lost not only individually but in terms of businesses. I find that we rely to heavily on the internet from time to time. I find it to be a blessing to have soo much information at the tips of my fingers. However I find that with the internet has distilled impatiens with people. We are less patient than we used to be. If we have to wait more than 5 seconds for the web page to load it's considered slow. We need to find answers right away and can't stand to read more information than we have to.
I feel that the internet is a blessing and a curse at the same time. As I said there is FAR too much dependence on the internet that if anything should happen I fear majority of the world that uses it will be lost.
So my question to you is just that. What do you think the world would be like today if the internet no longer existed?
1 person likes this
16 responses
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
23 Feb 09
Well first the world would cease to exist..to a point as the internet controls close to everythingi n one way or another..
But if it did happen, in all the kaos and all, we'd still have telephones and the Postal service so all would not be lost...we'd just have to go back to doing things the way we did back in the "olden days" of the 1960's!!!!
@AmandaBarnhart (671)
• Canada
23 Feb 09
My exact thoughts :) Many thanks for your response. I think it's doable but I do think that many wouldn't want to have to go back to the older ways. However I feel it would make us a bit more patient and appreciative of how the internet really connects a lot of the world.
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
23 Feb 09
Yeah, no one would like to do it, but we'd sure learn a lesson from it and appreciate things more!
@jwfarrimond (4473)
•
23 Feb 09
I don't need to imagine what it would be like, I just have to think back to what it was like 20 or 30 years ago. In general, a lot slower - not that that's a bad thing. But on ballance I prefer todays high speed intenetted world 
@AmandaBarnhart (671)
• Canada
23 Feb 09
lol :) what I mean is what would the world be like now that the internet is so heavily integrated into individuals and businesses daily lives and workings. I feel the countries would cease to function for a bit till it realized that the old way is possible to do again :)
@alokn99 (5717)
• India
24 Feb 09
Hard to imagine, but a lot of what we do will come to a standstill. for those of us who tend to exist only in the virtual world it will be a loss of indentity. yes a lot of things that we depend on the internet for will be become difficult to do. It's like being set back by a period of 25 years. The only thing is it happens immediately and the shock of getting over it will take some time.
@hotsummer (13835)
• Philippines
24 Feb 09
if there will not be any more internet basically we will just be back to what we used to be when the internet has not existed. life before internet is still a good one. so i don't think that it will be that bad. but we will lose lots of opportunity or many things that we enjoy by the net like instantaneous email which we never had before. and also information will be harder to disseminate cause we will be bad to the old medium of spreading information which by papers and medias. and so things will be much slower. the progress will be not that fast as we have now. and there are so many things like ordinary people will not be able to enjoy. cause mostly only those companies and institutions have access to information . but now as we know even individual can access information any where without have to buy some books for it. specially to me who is almost at home every day, i will be back to my boring life.
@23uday (2997)
• India
24 Feb 09
hi
Actually i cannot think this world without internet.it has booste up my information levels and taught me many new things.and i have also earned money through some of the sites.it makes the world smaller and makes us reach our friends and communicate with them.it has improved the technology and and it also helped in finding really very nice friends.it's a boon to me.
take care
bye!!!!!!!!!!!!
@sixclix (677)
• Philippines
24 Feb 09
It's true the internet has both pros and cons but I believe the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Information from across the world is now available at our finger tips. So if the internet would cease to exist, mankind would step 20-50 years back. Information and technology would develop at a snails pace again.
Anyway, have a good one.
@gracie04 (4549)
• Philippines
24 Feb 09
I don't want to imagine.. internet's been playing an important function in my life and i don't think i can survive without it.. i don't have a real stable job(due to my health condition) and i'm only working hard online to earn fair income to support my financial and medical needs..yay!!! I hope i would be able to discover more legitimate online jobs so i would be able to help myself, hubby and my family.. =)
@morningstar369 (495)
• United States
24 Feb 09
Bite your tongue, don't even say that.....all my friends live in my computer. I honestly have no idea what would happen. So much depends on the internet. Not only the social side but the business side. Lay inforcement and many others use the internet to get the job done. I think there would be a very big mess. It would take some serious catastrophe of major paprotion to cause that. I figure if something like thaat happened then we all would be more inclined to be striving for survival. If it was that big then alot of people would not make it. Getting back online would be the least of our worries. I hope that day never comes.
@onedaysoon (651)
• United States
24 Feb 09
If the internet ceased to exist, I would cease to exist :o). I would definately have a LOT more time and I would probably get a lot more productive things done. I agree that the internet is a blessing and a curse. It is filled with instant information about everything, but at the same time it is filled with so much to occupy time too much time.
The worst thing is I am stuck with the slooow internet, due to my location. So, what one gets done in a seconds, takes me forever.
I do still remember how I did research before there was internet, the library. I haven't been in one forever, but I know they are still there if the internet stopped. Although, I would be a bit lost if I had to start writing checks and paying bills by mail again.
@jenisky (406)
• Philippines
24 Feb 09
for everybody's sake, i guess the world will have a slow progress.will start again from the basics and its kinda slow and boring world :) for my own sake,without the internet i cannot connect faster,easier and cheapest way with my loveones away.i hope it will not happen :)
@strawberrychocodahi (4818)
• Philippines
24 Feb 09
If the internet ceases to continue at this very moment, then all our transactions will be back to good old days. If emails won't continue anymore, then we are again back to good postal mailing system wherein we have to wait for a week or so for our mails to arrive.
If e-commerce will be gone, then my friend, paying bills and other stuffs like buying will be manual again. By going to a payment center and pay the bills and you have to pay for transportation for going into the office to pay the bills.
If internet is gone, then playing games will be back to Play stations and pc games but not the online games. And the street games will be back again as children will be playing outside. No more chatting, no more use of web cam , and no Mylot to pay us with our effort of participating here , hehehe! very bad!
@pratik87 (1927)
• India
24 Feb 09
well,there was a time when the internet was not used commercially as well as for personal use..for corporate companies would have still stuck to the conventional banking system and people sitting at home and chatting now woud have been watching their telivision sets thats all
@sammi841018 (23)
• China
24 Feb 09
Hard to imagine! My life will become boring and I don't know how to work, because the internet is everywhere in our lives, and I wish the day will never come.
@Tori0325 (11)
• United States
24 Feb 09
WHOA!!!! Dont even propose things like that!!! LOL! I don't know how I'd survive w/out my daily dose of "googling that s***"... my own little phrase I say when I want to know something... I'd be completely lost... thered be no myspace... no facebook... no yahoo... OH NO!!! i wouldn't like that at all. That would mean id have to go my college's library and read the books in there... what a travesty that would be!!! how boring!!!
@saichandtalluri (1486)
• India
24 Feb 09
i hope again we will use traditional method of sending letters with help of pegions and to communicate we have our mobiles and landlines. Internet is gift to me because most of the time i find myself on the internet.
@sherwin023 (204)
• Philippines
23 Feb 09
hi!! that's very tough question!!! hahaaa!!! just kidding!!! for me I'm into music.. because music music is my passion. and I really love to perform. I like performing live!! I love performance, I love to play guitar, and mostly i love drumming!!! = )
