Disruption on the information superhighway. Could we survive?

The days of watching Growing Pains, wearing tight-rolled jeans, and playing Nintendo Game Boy are long gone, and have been replaced with a constant barrage of ads and influencers. Always connected, sharing information, and following each other as we attempt to live our lives. As we move through the world trying to keep up, technology keeps moving forward. Taunting us and daring our minds and devices to work smarter and push farther. I can’t help but think about what would happen if the internet went down today. Could we last a day, a week? And what would we do with all that time?

According to a 2021 Pew Research Center survey, about half of all adults were online in 2000, and today, 93% of US adults use the internet. “For some demographic groups — such as young adults, college graduates, and those from high-income households, internet usage is near ubiquitous.”

It wasn’t too long ago that the internet didn’t even exist. Now, it has become like water or food; an essential part of our daily lives. Not just for you and me, but the businesses and industries that rely on internet service to operate each day. Given the amount of time we all spend face down in our smartphones, laptops and other devices, life without the internet seems enormously hard to imagine.

As a card-carrying, or should I say Walkman-carrying, member of the “MTV Generation” I’m considered a digital immigrant, straddling the line between the Baby Boomers that came before and the digital natives of Gen Z. Growing up at a time before networks and algorithms, we learned how to type on typewriters and write with pens in cursive, on paper. When the World Wide Web came along we experienced a seismic shift in the way we communicated with each other and the world. All of a sudden, we had access to people, places, and things that blew our minds. You remember, right? And while the possibilities seemed endless and exciting, the reality was that an entire generation had to adapt to life-altering changes beyond our control. For a group of independent control freaks, I think we did okay. While we were just young enough to appreciate its power, we had an intuitive understanding of how technology could improve our world.

The internet is the most widely adopted technology in the history of humanity. It was built on anonymity where free speech reigned supreme. Now, with social media platforms capturing our constant attention with reels and memes, it has become something else. It has opened up our lives to judgment from complete strangers and forced all those who wish to participate to create a brand, or public identity that is supposed to reflect real life, yet we all know the truth. The internet has become a worldwide reality, but is it necessary, and moreover what would we do without it?

Imagine your day begins and you reach over to pick up your phone to check TikTok and there is no service. We’ve all been there. We troubleshoot and narrow down the issue, then restart or reset, knowing it will eventually start working again. Well, what if this is the day it doesn’t?

Would you discover once again that your phone can make calls by accessing the call function? Would you pick up a pen and piece of paper to write a note to a friend and send it through the mail?

We are living in a time when connections are built through machines and there is no place to hide. We make ourselves, and our information, permanently available, leaving little to no privacy. As a generation, we are overachievers and overthinkers. Our brains function at a speed that would have seemed impossible 30 years ago. In an effort to innovate, are we losing the ability to unplug and tap into our authentic identity? Are we ready to cede our authentic selves to social platforms?

Woven into the fabric of our society, the internet has become more than a service or a tool. It has influence over us all and is sewn into every aspect of our lives. Imagining the days long ago, and thinking about all of the amazing things that have come about because of the internet, the question remains, could we live without it?

For me, the answer is easy. I would grab a good book, turn on the radio and enjoy every moment of anonymity, basking in the freedom and simplicity of life. If you had 72 hours off the grid, what would you do?

This is clearly a far-fetched scenario likely not to happen, but just in case it does…keep your pens and stamps close and your therapist closer.