On the occasion of Internet Day, celebrated on May 17, I had a question: have today’s young people ever wondered what the world would be like without the internet and social networks? Of course, it would be very different from how they understand it today; It would be a lot of work for them to live without the instantaneity that technology provides and they would feel cut off and even lost for not being able to use transit applications. Even for older adults, it would be problematic to return to the times when to find a home you resorted to a thick guide full of maps with small letters and that did not inform about traffic problems.
In recent years, some experiments have been carried out with children and young people on what happens when they are deprived of access to the internet. In one case, for eight hours the participants did not have internet. Only three of the 68 participants finished the experiment, and most suffered nausea, sweating, dizziness, hot flashes, and even suicidal thoughts and panic attacks.
In another experiment, for seven days the participants disconnected from the Internet and wrote their impressions in a journal. The sensations they described were related to negative feelings such as anxiety, insecurity or dependence.
While it’s unlikely that the world will ever be without internet for several days, on some occasions it has been for hours. In October 2004, a failure in the main computer of a Mexican satellite caused the transmission of telecommunications services throughout the continent to be suspended for almost 12 hours. The failure originated from the growth of tin filaments in the satellite’s main computer (“it grew beards”, said the director of the responsible company).
In 2021, the main social networks “fell” in the world for about six hours. Beyond the personal repercussions on users, in both cases the events generated important consequences in economic, financial and prestige terms for the companies that operate the different services over the Internet.
As adults, what would the world be like today without the internet and social media?
Perhaps the first sensation would be, already accustomed to social networks, a certain despair because there would not be a form of personal expression in a massive way or to be instantly aware of everything that happens in the city, in the world or with known people .
Telephones without an Internet connection, curiously, would only serve what they were invented for: to talk; they would not send text messages or photos or videos, and they would have to wait until they were at home or in the office to be able to tune in to the news and get information; Tax and service payments would have to be made directly at a bank or at a branch of the service provider, subject to enormous bureaucracy.
For public relations agencies, not having the internet would mean, among other things: physically sending press releases and photographs to the different media, overcoming the challenge of distributing them before the closing time of the editions through a fleet of motorcycle messengers, (as there would be no food delivery service either, the delivery men could be hired for courier services).