Surviving at Home Without the Internet: When the Network Goes Down
The internet was, in many ways, an amazing creation.
Rather than having to dig out the OS Maps (ordinance survey, not operating system), you can type into your favoured navigation app where you want to go and get step-by-step instructions on how to complete your journey.
If you don’t know something, you no longer have to sit in ignorance or believe whatever nonsense your parents say in a confident voice, rather being able to just ask an internet search engine.
Whether it be music or television, ordering a present for someone or editing a photo, there is almost nothing you can’t do online. The question is, have we become too reliant on it?
How Many Things in Your Home Work Through the Internet?
If you spend just a few moments looking around your house, it won’t take long before you notice just how many things work via the internet.
Ok, your mobile phone will be able to makes calls and send text messages without it, but if you want to use an app like WhatsApp, check social media or even book a doctor’s appointment then there is a very good chance that the only way that you’ll be able to do that is by your device being connected to the internet.
We don’t just mean the home Wi-Fi system either, with devices that connect via 4G or 5G still getting onto the internet in order to work for most things.
stuck home alone with no internet tonight & all day tomorrow 🥲 no netflix. no ps5. wtf am i supposed to do take a walk?
— 🧚🏽‍♀️ (@sugglyduckling) December 7, 2024
If you need to listen to music, there is a more than likely chance that you will do so via an internet-connected device. Of course there will be some people that still have old-fashioned radios that actually connect to radio waves, but the likelihood is that you will listen via your computer, a speaker system that works over Wi-Fi or use an app like Spotify.
Some of you will have smart plugs or internet enabled light bulbs, perhaps a video doorbell that operates online or even choose to watch the television not via the aerial but through applications such as iPlayer, Sky Go or Netflix, all of which work through the internet.
Like Going Back in Time
If you have Sky or Virgin, the likelihood is that you will be able to continue watching live or previously recorded television even if the internet were to go down. For most other people, however, being unable to stream via an app would mean needing to hook up their television to an aerial.
You might have one on the roof if you live in an older property, but most people will need to turn to aerials that plug into the back of their television and struggle to get a decent reception, especially in this day and age of everything having gone to digital. Losing the internet would be like going back in time for many people and not in a good way.
@hustlersvaultt How’s life without the internet#interview #life #without #internet #funny#comeback ♬ original sound – hustlersvaultt
‘Kill Hitler? I’d love to, but I’m just trying to get BBC Radio 2 to work on my handheld radio’.
There are some that live in such manner all of the time. It isn’t that they do so by choice, but rather because they live in an area so remote that the internet connection is too poor to be relied upon.
School homework can’t be completed without getting online, so such people stay behind at school. Phone calls can’t be made without Wi-Fi calling being enabled, meaning turning to the house phone and hoping that the service is solid enough to speak to people. Playing on the Xbox of PlayStation is out of the question, so it’s a football against the wall, yo-yo or board game instead.
Could it be a Liberating Experience
There is certainly an argument that some people would benefit from being able to turn off their internet for a prolonged period of time. For many of us, the internet is not something that lends itself to productivity.
Popping on to check a message can lead to a quick bit of scrolling through Twitter or TikTok, after which we’ll suddenly have lost an hour without really having done anything. Some will chose to take the dramatic route of completely removing all internet-enabled devices from their phone, even going so far as to replace their smartphone with a so-called ‘dumb phone’.
Others, meanwhile, will simply turn off the internet for a few hours and see how they cope.
Been on a transatlantic cruise with no internet for 7 days thought this would be challenging but discovered I have had the best and most liberating 7 days for a long time feeling rested and de-stressed! I will take this learning forward and reduce usage and block feeds that add nothing to my life
— Carol (@caroloneill1.bsky.social) 1 December 2024 at 10:42
Not having the internet at home would force families to talk to one another more, interact and play games that require the ability to be online.
This will bring some people closer, whilst it might well push others further apart. It would mean that you would need to do something such as go to your local coffee shop or library in order to get onto the internet, which may in turn present you with an opportunity to meet new people and spend time in the presence of others, to say nothing of supporting local businesses.
There are definitely more than a few people who would relish such an opportunity. The question is, are you one of them?