Rachel's Ramblings

Will the Internet Crash and Will We Need a Plan B?

Question, when hasn't technology failed us at one point in our lives?

Answer, never.

Unfortunately, technology, like us humans, has many flaws. One being that it will crash, we all have had a mental breakdown and crashed at one point in our lives so, can we really complain? Ironically, when the internet stops working it's like so does our society. So yes, we do in a plan B.

We can't always rely on technology, yes, it is useful and makes life easier. However, recently there has been more people using the internet than ever before because well there's not much else to do when under lockdown. Let me ask you, when was the last time you looked at a hard cover book to find information? My answer would be when I was last forced to in school which was probably in 2013, I think. If you are like any modern human, it was probably a long time ago or perhaps never.

So, now if I told you that you could use the internet ever again because it crashed, how would you feel, would you be able to cope not being able to use the internet? Some of you would say "yeah of course", myself included, so now I am going to ask you could you manage without the following things; Netflix, YouTube, Online Games, Amazon, eBay, Google (all Google applications), Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, PayPal, Wikipedia, Email, eBooks, Apple, WordPress, music applications and so much more.

If you can live life without all of that and anything else that relies on the internet I challenge you to a week if not a month of no internet, see if it as easy as you think it will be. I'll be honest with you; I would struggle to last a week.

The internet is defined as the worldwide interconnection of individual networks operated by government, industry, academia and private parties. Initially the internet was designed to interconnect laboratories engaged in government research. Since 1994 it has been expanded to serve millions of users and a multitude of purposes in all parts of the world. The internet has given us a platform in this, now, globalised (international) world. The growth of the internet still to this day hasnt stopped. At the end of 1995 the number of users was 16 million, with the world population percentage being 0.4%, and in January 2020, the number of users has increased to 4 574 million users with the world population percentage at 58.7%. This continual increase may harm the internet and cause it to crash, it was never designed to with hold this many users.

So, if / when the internet crashes, what is our plan B?

Panic? If you say yes to panic, then I'd like to remind you that that wont get you very far in life, in fact panic get you nowhere. Well the best idea that I can come up with is that, we go back to how it was once before. You know, like people used to find out information and survive before the internet was invented in the late 1960s?

I mean instead of sitting inside and playing video games or watching Netflix or streaming videos / movies / music, you can go outside and enjoy nature spend more time with people. We would have to go back to sending postcards and letters if you wanted to write to someone. Life wouldnt be as fast / instant and demanding as the internet has made it, which would benefit us greatly in our health.

In the end, there is a chance that the internet will crash. Whether or not it happens, we still need to have a backup plan, one that isn't panic and chaos. Perhaps it's restructuring the structure of the networking system or perhaps having world-wide no-internet days to help the internet not have a mental meltdown. Who knows maybe it wont crash or maybe it will? Only time will tell...