Life without the internet

Earlier this week at Protech Recruitment, we experienced an internet connection outage which fortunately only lasted 30 minutes but during this time, we could see that our staff looked “lost”. It made me think about what life would be like now without the internet. It’s apparent that most of us can’t live without internet access for more than a few minutes, but what would happen if we were without the internet for longer?

As a thought experiment, BBC Focus magazine came up with the following:

1.   After one day

At the end of the first day, Facebook and Google would have lost £300M in advertising revenue. Amazon sales would drop to zero. Most businesses would have ground to a halt as they rely on the internet to function.

2.   After a week

The Power Grid relies on the internet to coordinate supply and demand. Without it, each country’s power grid will become unbalanced and most of the world is blacked out. Gas and petrol supplies will have shut down as they rely on power and the internet.

3.   After a month

Shopping, both on the high street and online will have ground to a halt. Supermarkets would not be able to restock their shelves, resulting in food shortages leading to mass civil disobedience. Governments will turn to the police and army to maintain order but their communication and own food and fuel supplies will have been affected.

4.   After a year

Basic old school copper landlines will have been established and society will have started to rebuild itself. Much of the world will have reverted to subsistence economies. The death toll from cold, starvation and unrest is estimated at a billion worldwide. The global economy has returned to 1930’s levels.

How would not having the internet affect you?