Could We Last Without Internet?

The conflict in Egypt has America's interest for some time. A few weeks ago, I was reading an article where they talked about how Egypt's Internet went dark. It's nearly impossible for Americans to imagine a world without the Internet anymore and I started to wonder what that would be like for us if our government could somehow shut down our Internet.

Since our class revolves around the Internet and how to read it, I thought this was an appropriate question. The Internet is such a valuable part of our culture that we're taking classes on how to read it and work on it.

Technology is being developed at an incredible speed and most of the new gadgets coming out allow us to access the Internet from anywhere with WiFi. WiFi is nearly everywhere, from restaurants to libraries. It's no wonder we spend so much time on it.

During the "Snowpocalypse", I remember making sure I had my computer all charged in case there was a power outage. I wanted to be able to get online if conditions got worse. When someone told me the power outage would probably knock out WiFi, I was stunned. I hadn't even considered not being able to reach the Internet. It's such a given now that the Internet is there that we take it for granted.

When I read about Egypt's Internet going dark, I wondered how America would fair without Internet for a day. Think about everything we do online. Teachers talk to us over email. Friends talk to us on Facebook. We get our daily news online most of the time. We waste our time online when we have nothing else to do. If the Internet were to unexpectedly go down for just 24 hours, what kind of chaos would our society fall into?

Fortunately, the power outage I was expecting didn't happen. It did bring to light just how much I rely on the Internet for my daily entertainment, though. I hope we never find ourselves in the situation Egypt is now in, politically and otherwise, but it's a good idea to think about how it would affect our culture if it did.