Is Life With No Internet Survivable?

[angie_nrs]

What we all seem to be forgetting is how the internet affects our lives in ways we take for granted.
No internet means no electronic banking, limited medical services, power grid goes down, stores don't get restocked and thousands of other things we never think about. TV, web surfing and cell phones are things we would miss immediately but when payday rolled around and you don't get paid things will get real in a hurry.

Indeed. This could (and likely would) be the modern day SHTF. I would not want to have a medical emergency if/when this might happen. Even doctors these days seem to be hamstrung without digital technology. Almost all diagnosis these days depend on some sort of test, which are not necessary, but many young doctors have been trained that way. Your past medical records are now all stored digitally, so there would be no access to your past tests, history, medications, etc. Also, how many of those new machines depend on internet connections to operate?

There's also not many employers who do their payroll off-line. Even those who do, how would you cash that check if your local bank or credit union didn't have digital access? Many stores, if they even still allowed transactions to happen, would likely be empty in very short order without new stock being delivered. Also, when was the last time someone saw a gas pump that was strictly analog?.....without credit card readers? Sure, I have cash on me at all times, but that might not even do me any good if stores can't make the sale b/c their entire network is down.

As far as living personally without internet, it wouldn't be a big deal for me, but I see the ramifications farther down the line as mentioned above. Those are the things that would concern me.

Everyone is missing the point of this thread.
Talk to some young people.
They have ZERO practical knowledge.
If you ask them a question about anything, they have to Google it.
"How to open a can of soup and warm it up?" ...I'll just Google it.

That's funny. Sometimes I wonder about some things or have questions about things and my first inclination is to ask someone who knows the answer. I'm still trying to get used to the idea of "googling" it.

 

[VenomJockey]

Everyone is missing the point of this thread.
Talk to some young people.
They have ZERO practical knowledge.
If you ask them a question about anything, they have to Google it.
"How to open a can of soup and warm it up?" ...I'll just Google it.
How to connect jumper-cables? No way.
They find out how hopeless they actually are when they drop off into the 'no-cell' zone at the farm we hold Zombie Hunt.
"What kind of tree is this? is this poison-ivy? is that animal edible?"
Each time, out comes the useless phone.
For them, life without the internet is un-survivable.
Their brain is stored 'in the cloud'.

Unfortunately, you are likely correct in saying the "now generation" could not survive without their phones/internet. Local schools are all handing out tablet computers like they are M&M's, and everything is being taught in a manner that allows them to use the tablet to find the answers. The students are no longer being taught to "think for themselves," just how to use the "Net/Web" to find the answers. Internet goes down, they are totally lost...can't even make change for a $5 bill at McDummies.

 

[Morgan101]

What we all seem to be forgetting is how the internet affects our lives in ways we take for granted.
No internet means no electronic banking, limited medical services, power grid goes down, stores don't get restocked and thousands of other things we never think about. TV, web surfing and cell phones are things we would miss immediately but when payday rolled around and you don't get paid things will get real in a hurry.

You make some excellent points, and there is no doubt it would be a major inconvenience for a while, but IMHO nobody is going to roll over and die. We can go back to a paper society easily. I wonder how much it would affect communications? ATT would be busy beyond belief reinstalling land lines. Anybody remember how to dial?

 

[Meerkat]

Everyone is missing the point of this thread.
Talk to some young people.
They have ZERO practical knowledge.
If you ask them a question about anything, they have to Google it.
"How to open a can of soup and warm it up?" ...I'll just Google it.
How to connect jumper-cables? No way.
They find out how hopeless they actually are when they drop off into the 'no-cell' zone at the farm we hold Zombie Hunt.
"What kind of tree is this? is this poison-ivy? is that animal edible?"
Each time, out comes the useless phone.
For them, life without the internet is un-survivable.
Their brain is stored 'in the cloud'.

SuperV, one of my grands was helping me in the yard ith a cell phone in hand aand texting several years ago. I told her to lose the techtronics and get busy. She laughed and put the phone on the porch.

 

[Rebecca]

I don't think a sudden disappearance of the internet would directly kill anybody. But I do feel it would likely result in an economic collapse and possibly a short to medium term electrical grid down situation. And those two things will result in deaths.

 

[The Lazy L]

Oldest daughter was amazed I didn't know how to access my money from an ATM. "How do you get cash?" she asked. I walk one block from work to the local bank branch," was my answer.

Wife wanted a cell phone. "Why?" I asked. Well she was with her girl friends and the friends all had phones, showing pictures, messaging and taking calls. Wife felt out of place. "So you want to spent $600 a year just so you can be 'with it'?" She replied, "Well it case of an emergency..." "...and before cell phones what did you do in case of an emergency?" I get the blank stare.

I'm having a one-on-one meeting with a coworker. Coworker's cell phone rings. He looks at the caller ID before announcing he has to take this. Caller turns out to be a telemarketer and the coworker want to have some fun. Coworker finishes with his fun and hangs up the call only to find I have left my office. I've got work to do, not to waste my time waiting for the coworker.

Can I survive without Al Bore's Internet? In a flash.

 

[VThillman]

I would definitely miss the Internet. My home would be cleaner and better organized though, 'cause it would be 'something to do'.

 

[Morgan101]

Let me ask a question here. I am not techie, and I really don't know. How much is infrastructure connected to the internet? When I think of the internet I think of social media; google (searches); You Tube; forums. I know there are areas where they are connected, but how dependent are business systems on the internet? There were lots of computers in lots of businesses that ran independently long before the internet was around. Couldn't they operate independently again?

 

[VThillman]

The World Wide Web existed when I started my first 'office' job in1990. It wasn't really 'business-capable', I think. The engineering office, which was where they put me, the tech writer, had cat5 cable running everywhere, so the computers were interconnected through a server, and landline connection was available. From the business perspective, except for 'contact sales', business could survive loss of the Internet. Personally, my smartphone is for emergency use only - and that emergency hasn't shown up yet.

 

[Morgan101]

The World Wide Web existed when I started my first 'office' job in1990. It wasn't really 'business-capable', I think. The engineering office, which was where they put me, the tech writer, had cat5 cable running everywhere, so the computers were interconnected through a server, and landline connection was available. From the business perspective, except for 'contact sales', business could survive loss of the Internet. Personally, my smartphone is for emergency use only - and that emergency hasn't shown up yet.

Good info. Thanks for sharing.

 

[The Lazy L]

Let me ask a question here. I am not techie, and I really don't know. How much is infrastructure connected to theon the internet? There were lots of computers in lots of businesses that ran independently long before the internet was around. Couldn't they operate independently again?

Majority of the inter trunk connections between traditional and cell phones are now Internet based.

SCADA (System Control and Date Acquisition) for large Utilities are Internet based.

Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol TCP/IP.

Local Area Network (LAN) is a group of computers and network devices connected together, usually within the same building.

Wide Area Network (WAN) connects several LANs and maybe limited to an enterprise (a corporation or an organization) or accessible to the public.

 

[angie_nrs]

Let me ask a question here. I am not techie, and I really don't know. How much is infrastructure connected to the internet? When I think of the internet I think of social media; google (searches); You Tube; forums. I know there are areas where they are connected, but how dependent are business systems on the internet? There were lots of computers in lots of businesses that ran independently long before the internet was around. Couldn't they operate independently again?

I think most businesses would have a BIG struggle trying to get back to doing things manually. You can no longer use quickbooks without going online at least onec per month. Most people who do payroll no longer do their own math, they just depend on the computer to do it. I remember my aunt doing her books for their business and she had spreadsheets galore, just like when I took my accounting class back in the day. If you asked a payroll person to do their books manually now, you'd likely get the deer in headlights look, especially if there were more than a dozen employees. It would be extremely time consuming, and likely have a big learning curve for most businesses. There would also be no way to pay some payroll taxes since some states require monthly and quarterly reporting and payments to be done online.

Most businesses are going paperless, or at least as paperless as they can get away with. When was the last time you saw a business with a manual creadit card reader? Heck, when was the last time you saw someone count change back to you without looking at the register? It used to be that the register was just a second check to make sure you counted your change right......not so much anymore. In addition, many businesses are trying to get away from paper checks and are moving towards digital deposits and payments. I've noticed this big push in the last few years. There was a recent thread here regarding paper checks and many people on this forum don't use checks anymore either. Plus, many "hip" businesses are trying to go cashless. The further businesses go in that direction, the more difficult living without internet would be for them and it just may sink their business if the internet went away.

 

[The Lazy L]

... Plus, many "hip" businesses are trying to go cashless. The further businesses go in that direction, the more difficult living without internet would be for them and it just may sink their business if the internet went away.

#1 Daughter tells me that all of Europe is cashless.

I recently spent 10 days in London and never once needed cash.

Credit Card readers use the Internet to "charge" your card for your purchases.

 

[zoomzoom]

I wonder how much it would affect communications? ATT would be busy beyond belief reinstalling land lines. Anybody remember how to dial?

I still have 2 land-lines in my house! What I'm not sure of is if the cable company uses VOIP.

 

[Meerkat]

I would definitely miss the Internet. My home would be cleaner and better organized though, 'cause it would be 'something to do'.

VThil I would get more done too but I still get mos things done.I just have to log in more when I leave to do stuff.

 

[Meerkat]

#1 Daughter tells me that all of Europe is cashless.

I recently spent 10 days in London and never once needed cash.

Credit Card readers use the Internet to "charge" your card for your purchases.

LazyL Your avatar does'nt look like a globetrotters avatar. More like one who has never left the county much less the country. Thats funny.

 

[Cnsper]

I still have 2 land-lines in my house! What I'm not sure of is if the cable company uses VOIP.

Yes they do use voip

 

[Supervisor42]

#1 Daughter tells me that all of Europe is cashless.

I recently spent 10 days in London and never once needed cash.

Credit Card readers use the Internet to "charge" your card for your purchases.

Well the good news is, (since Al Gore invented the 'world-wide-web') it is indeed a web and not a network.
This means that there are literally thousands of paths for info to get from point A to point B. No matter where you cut the wire, or take down towers, only local outages will happen.
Study up on IP hops to check speed. One day it will go thru Atlanta, the next day thru Cincinnati.
It is actually impossible to 'kill' the entire internet.
God bless Al Gore!:green man:

 

[Tacitus]

I have quite a few books of things I might have to look up if the Internet goes down...medical books and books for many other practical skills. There is a lot I don't know, and if the Internet goes away, then that means very bad things are going down in society, and if there is something I will need to know at that point, I've tried to get a book about it now.

 

[Bacpacker]

I am somewhere along those lines. I use the net a lot to research stuff. But I have a decent collection of books on a wide range of topics. Sometimes I just like being able to put my hands on something like a book.

 

[angie_nrs]

#1 Daughter tells me that all of Europe is cashless.

I recently spent 10 days in London and never once needed cash.

Credit Card readers use the Internet to "charge" your card for your purchases.

Good to know, but I'm not a bit surprised. It scares the crud outta me b/c I think it's headed our way. We defeated the Brits for a good reason.....

I have my doubts that many (if any) Millenials have ever seen that big clunker of a CC processor that made the carbon copies after it got dragged over the card. From my understanding those were submitted to the local banks for payment from the CC companies. How many companies would still have the old technology to actually do that anymore? I'm asking b/c I simply don't know. I have high doubts that many have that capability anymore.

I have quite a few books of things I might have to look up if the Internet goes down...medical books and books for many other practical skills. There is a lot I don't know, and if the Internet goes away, then that means very bad things are going down in society, and if there is something I will need to know at that point, I've tried to get a book about it now.

I've done the same.....but I'm a book hoarder too, so there's that. Still, think of the amount of time it takes to find specific information in a book vs. just typing it into a search engine. The information might be there, but just imagine the time commitment it woul take to find an answer that way now, verses what is currently at our fingertips. Librarians are no longer in high demand, but I think that would change very quickly if the internet were no more.

 

[Meerkat]

I have quite a few books of things I might have to look up if the Internet goes down...medical books and books for many other practical skills. There is a lot I don't know, and if the Internet goes away, then that means very bad things are going down in society, and if there is something I will need to know at that point, I've tried to get a book about it now.

Me too Tac

 

[Supervisor42]

I have my doubts that many (if any) Millenials have ever seen that big clunker of a CC processor that made the carbon copies after it got dragged over the card. From my understanding those were submitted to the local banks for payment from the CC companies. How many companies would still have the old technology to actually do that anymore? I'm asking b/c I simply don't know. I have high doubts that many have that capability anymore.

Just for you:

I was never happier to see them go.
Every carbon copy you threw away had your full name, your full credit card number and expiration date on it.
You could pull one garbage bag at any gas station and have enough credit cards to last you for months.
The old 'munch & crunch' machines wouldn't work today anyway because most CC cards no longer have raised numbers on them.

 

[angie_nrs]

The old 'munch & crunch' machines wouldn't work today anyway because most CC cards no longer have raised numbers on them.

True that. I think most (if not all of them) are the chip reading kind now too. How many stores these days could or would survive without CC transactions? I doubt very many. I remember when Aldi first put in a new store about 30 miles away from me. They first stated out as a cash only store. That changed (I believe) within their first year of operation. Now, you almost never see anyone paying cash in there anymore......except me. So, Aldi tried to not play the CC game and must've quickly realized that it wasn't going to fly.

So, there you go.....no internet......no credit card transactions. How long do you think that would go on without chaos following?

 

[Supervisor42]

So, there you go.....no internet......no credit card transactions. How long do you think that would go on without chaos following?

Down here probably 1/3rd of people at the grocery stores still pay in cash.
Even if there was a local temporary vanishing of internet service, people like me would just put our card back in the wallet and pay in cash.
No biggie. We are not NYC!
With the design of the internet as a web, (which means the data just takes a different route around the broken links) there can only be localized outages.
And since we practice taking down towers and wires (hey, hurricane) we can tell you most of it will be back up and running in 2 days.

 

[Amish Heart]

EBT (snap, food stamps) is on a card. That's a problem

 

[Supervisor42]

EBT (snap, food stamps) is on a card. That's a problem

For a day or 2, yes.
Any smartphone with service and a card-reader can process the swipe of an EBT card.
Cell towers are down?

Oh no!!!

Only 2 days later:

 

[dademoss]

Just for you:
I was never happier to see them go.ccEvery carbon copy you threw away had your full name, your full credit card number and expiration date on it.
You could pull one garbage bag at any gas station and have enough credit cards to last you for months.
The old 'munch & crunch' machines wouldn't work today anyway because most CC cards no longer have raised numbers on them.

I remember asking customers if they wanted their carbons. 2 of my 3 cards still have raised numbers.