What a ridiculous question! If the Internet goes down
for an hour in a region, it becomes global news, and if it goes down globally, anarchy ensues. It would be unthinkable to imagine the entire planet going out for even an hour.
But what if the internet was never developed? What would the world be like today if that had happened? Without TikTok, WhatsApp, dating sites, YouTube, Pub G, and a slew of other applications, we wouldn’t be here. Could you live a happy life without these apps? What else would have vanished? Amazon and other e-commerce sites, cashless phone transactions, internet banking services, online investing, and cryptocurrency would not exist. Would you be content if you couldn’t pay with your phone or invest in Bitcoin?
What else is there? Thousands of IT firms–Deloitte, cognizant, Meta, Google–would be present, but Netflix would just be renting DVDs. The mushroom forest of digital marketing would have vanished. And you might have been severely lacking in social media influencers. Wikipedia, as well as several other educational sites, learning platforms, awareness and news sites, and so on, would have been lost. How much of an impact would these items have had on your life if they were no longer there? What would happen if we didn’t have access to these things?
To comprehend the need for the internet, we must first define its purpose. What is the main goal of the Internet? – faster information dissemination by linking computers using various means. The Internet was first developed in the 1960s, when the United States Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) supported the creation of an ARPANET network. It established numerous paths for connecting computers, hence decentralizing communication systems.
Even if ARPANET had not been built, the birth of the Internet would have been unavoidable. Because computers were developing at an exponential rate, someone somewhere would eventually figure out how to connect them and establish computer communication. But was it really necessary for modern human society to set up computer connectivity and have the internet on every technological device? Return to the issue of instant information transmission, for which the internet was principally used.
Would we have been unconnected, less informed, or slower informed if the internet had not been available on our phones or computers? No. No, it does not. To cover communication and information gaps, we have better and more efficient communication methods than the Internet. Satellite technology is considerably superior to the internet for linking equipment that are even remotely located. It’s just a shame we haven’t expanded it further to make it more accessible. One big endeavor in this direction could be Starlink.
Leaving aside smart TVs, we still watch TV via satellite networks. Cellular networks are another mode of communication that the Internet could never replace. Cellular networks, which are more efficient than the Internet, are nevertheless used almost everywhere. We may send SMS or MMS messages at high speeds utilizing cellular technology. So, even if the internet did not exist, we would still be able to watch TV channels from all over the world and easily communicate with our friends and coworkers. I agree that without the internet, we might not be able to have video calls.
If we have effectively defeated the internet’s fundamental goal, then other internet dependencies are merely a fallacy and market generated. You’ve probably heard that necessity is the mother of invention several times.
What was the impetus for the development of Facebook and other social media apps? Wouldn’t you have friends if Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat didn’t exist? Meta is now ten stages ahead of schedule in building a virtual environment where people can enjoy living a completely virtual life. Who on earth has ever requested that? There is no necessity behind the creation of this virtual reality, but if it is successful, necessity, urge, and FOMO will emerge. Soon, we will be addicted to VR and consider it a part of our daily life.
The internet, in my opinion, is merely a distraction for human civilisation. It prevents humans from engaging in productive tasks that are necessary for the advancement of humanity. Many would blame social media sites, porn sites, game apps, Netflix, or Youtube at this point, but these are forms of entertainment that we require as humans. The quantity of these things is an issue, but what does the most harm is the industry that has grown up around the internet.
App development, social media management, social media influencers, people making reaction videos (the worst), web development, digital marketing, and even the entire IT industry are merely distractions for humanity, requiring a large number of human resources to create apps and websites or to serve them. What we as humans can accomplish in the setting of a magnificent civilization that is known to be the only one in the universe and has undergone multiple transformations to get here.
Instead of making expressions in response to some film or developing apps for virtual girlfriends, humanity is destined to do more astounding feats. Humanity has been squandering its resources and thoughts on apps that make mosquito repellent noises. Even Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, millions of software, and all AI technologies are insignificant in the overall scheme of human civilization’s development.
What if the internet didn’t exist at all? What effect may this have on Earth? We as humans would be working in more productive fields such as space, manufacturing, construction, and the creation of tangible, rather than virtual, marvels. Without the internet, we may have solved the enigma of the unification of gravity and quantum forces and obtained the theory of everything.
Many more scientists would be working on Mars expeditions and contemplating interstellar travel. All of the brilliant minds saved from the IT and internet industries would have been put to use solving challenging physics and math problems. Social media influencers could make a meaningful difference on the ground. Many resources would have been available to perform research for the development of cancer and diabetes treatments. All of these things may be accomplished in the near future, but the majority of them would have been accomplished long ago if humanity had not squandered its resources to boost the ranking of every foolish website on Google.
