Most of us struggle to remember what life was like without the internet and our children have never known life without it. It is so universal now that almost all of us use it every day of our lives in many different ways, whether this is to check the latest football score, see what your friends are up to on social media or skyping people into the staff meeting that you are holding at Windsor Meeting Rooms to give your employees some updated training.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if someone pulled the plug? More than half of the world’s population are active online, so it’s sudden disappearance would affect us greatly.
Some argue that the world is a much better place with the internet. Education has certainly benefited with kids having more access to education than ever before. Others focus on the negative aspects. The danger it brings for children, the confidential data leaks, hacking and the overuse of social media.
The disadvantages of having no internet
Initially life would probably be a little more miserable. We would no longer have instant access to our friends and family at the touch of a button. We would lose those connections that we rely on so much. Things like support groups, chat forums and other social interactions. We would feel disconnected suddenly. We would have to go back to using the telephone, writing letters and borrowing books from the library again. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it would take some adjusting to. While we still very much have the online world it is important to make the most of your online business presence.
What would be better perhaps?
After the initial period of disconnection and gloom, wonderful things could happen. Our personal relationships might improve. We would be spending more time playing games with our children instead of video games. We would be forced to talk to each other when there was nothing good on TV! Imagine eating dinner with your friends or family, with nobody glued to their mobile phone screen. True interaction would return and that’s got to be a good thing.
We’d sleep better again too. The amount of time we spend on our devices is wrecking our sleep patterns, leaving us grumpy, grouchy and in the long-term, affecting our mental and physical health.
What would change?
The speed at which we received news would slow down. We would have to return to relying on next day’s newspapers or the TV to find out what was happening in the world. World events, politics and even war could all be different if the speed at which news travelled was no longer instantaneous.
Whilst it’s not always a good thing to self-diagnose using the internet, it has certainly been a source of vital health information and could have saved many unnecessary trips to the doctor. Of course, you can end up thinking you’ve got a rare tropical disease, the plague and any number of frightening conditions but on the whole, the internet has provided a world of useful medical information at our fingertips.
Shopping would cease to be as easy as it is now. Fashion trends would take longer to spread, new technology would be harder to create without crowdfunding and global sales would plummet without the one-click purchase and home delivery we’ve grown accustomed to.
