Imagine waking up to a reality where the internet no longer exists. That morning, when you finally arise and move about the house, you realize there are no more emails to check, no instant messages flying back and forth between friends, no social media status updates to enlighten or upset you, and no video calls from long-distance loved ones. Just imagine living life without the internet. Taking it away would rock our world to its core, severely disrupting our way of life. What aspects would bear the brunt, and what would such a world without the internet be like?
Note: This article is part of our archival content and belongs to a previous phase of our publication. Amaranth Magazine is now a dedicated literary magazine.
The dependence on the internet has become so deeply woven into our daily routines that one can barely imagine a day devoid of its convenience. Let’s take a closer look at just how much this technology has become an essential part of our lives – and what life without it might be like.
The Impact of the Internet on Our Personal Lives
The first and most noticeable change, without using the internet, would be the lost or weakened contact one would have with family, friends, and acquaintances. Messaging apps, video calls, and social media make it possible to stay in contact with family and friends regardless of the distance. Without such facilities, we would realize isolation in ways we don’t even expect. Those living far away from family and friends would have visiting in person as the only means of connection. Instead of this, there is the far more laborious methods of letters and long-distance calls that are denied both real-time updates and little moments of life.
Also gone would be the conveniences of searching for information and learning new skills online. We would have to pay for our time and hire professionals instead of watching short how-to tutorials. Many of us have acquired skills through online resources – from cooking and painting to making DIY crafts and coding. The internet had been a window for expanding our knowledge and self-sufficiency – a very valuable asset which we very often take for granted.
Living on Slow Mode: A World without Instant Information
Think of the pace of communication today, which involves receiving an email in seconds, having breaking news across the world in minutes, and getting instant updates on exam results or events. Now imagine how that frustration would escalate into a waiting game: queues at every bank, clinic, and ticket counter. We would all have to go back to physical paperwork for most things, from bill payments to appointment bookings, with the additional delay and inefficiency this entails.
Take the net away, and we go back into that world of letters and paperwork, queues, and endless waiting – a world that would feel, by comparison, unbearably slow.
How Businesses Would Suffer Without the Internet
Nowadays, business relies on the internet – from the tiniest store offering merchandise to local consumers to transcontinental corporations with clients throughout the world. The internet provides access to customers unlimited by geography simply by putting products and services online. High-quality images, plenty of information, and customer reviews infuse the consumer with confidence in what they choose and open doors to far greater markets than would otherwise be accessible.
The loss of the internet would further reach down to the consumers who would lose the ease of online shopping and comparison of products. Businesses wholly dependent on online sales would shut down overnight, making millions of people jobless. Internet-driven commerce would come to a grinding halt, hitting the global economy.
Outdated Technology
As it stands, without the internet, most of our apps would just stop working: inexpensive, efficient, and effortless car-sharing apps would disappear, forcing us again to hail taxis by waving our hands in the air. Also gone would be all forms of traffic control and GPS navigation that help congestion or guide us through our journeys, thus making traveling times longer and likely even more accidents.
From grocery shopping to takeaway orders to other essentials, online shopping has indeed made life easier and averted much urban traffic. Without the one-click convenience, shopping would mean going out, queuing, and putting up with store hours and limited product availability.
And without the internet, what would your smartphone be? Most of its capabilities would be nullified by the lack of connectivity we have been used to.
A Silent World of Science and Discovery
Besides, the internet serves as the backbone of scientific collaboration; through the internet, researchers spread across the globe share findings and discuss new breakthroughs in real time. Imagine you made a breakthrough discovery – new news would travel fast, but how would you go ahead to confirm that nobody else had already made that very same breakthrough? Without the internet, many scientific advances will often happen at a snail’s pace, perforce from delays in sharing knowledge and building on others’ work.
Think of how much time and resources scientific articles of research would take if they were to be published in books and distributed by hand. Libraries would be our only source of information, access to which would be subject to our geographical location and availability. If the internet did not exist to share knowledge and update it in real-time, stagnation of science and slowing down of progress would have been realities.
The Freedom of Connectivity: Embracing the Imperative
But it is with the growing interconnectedness of our world that access to the internet should be nothing short of a public utility, alongside electricity and clean water. Therefore, blocking access or limitation entails implications not only for the individuals concerned but for entire societies too, which are further isolated from the global community because of the lack of access.
As our lives and economies are now intricately hooked to the internet, free access to it has become a basic right for people all over the world. Its influence is enormous, its benefits undeniable, its lack a dent in our individual lifestyles and in our communities and human advancement in general.
