What – no internet?  That would have a lot of implications. Some good, mostly bad. Like how would you communicate? How would you search for job vacancies? You’d probably have to start writing letters, making long-distance phone calls and reading adverts in the local newspaper. Nothing earth-shattering, especially for those old enough to remember the early 90s, but a lot of the population don’t remember the early 90’s so maybe it would be earth shattering for the later generations?

There’s one thing that’s certain: we’d have to change a lot of our habits. Most people don’t realise how much they rely on the internet. Did you know that on an average day there are 192 BILLION emails sent? That’s a whole lot of information (some of which I image could be quite important) put on hold. And that there are 3 BILLION google searches every day. You’d have to go to a Library and everything (ironic smile).  In a world where pretty much any information you need is accessible in seconds, this could be quite distressing. Bye Bye Siri.

But what about the economic fallout? Not being able to send emails or tweets would be only a minor headache, let’s be honest. Last year it was estimated that the world spent $1.2 million dollars online every 30 seconds.

But even this is just the tip of the iceberg. As we enter the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the lines between the physical, digital and biological are becoming blurred. As emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, autonomous vehicles and 3D printing begin to take their place in the global economy, it seems certain that even if the internet were inactive for just a day, it would affect almost every part of our lives.

The implications are huge.

We really don’t realise how much we take it for granted and there are hundreds of things I’ve not mentioned that would be affected. The question is: how long could we function without the internet? A day? I’m sure we could manage this (with a lot of fallout, still). A week? I’m not so sure. A month? Definitely not.

But could it potentially have any positive effects?

You’d have to actually go downstairs and have a face to face conversation with your family about what was for tea instead of just texting each other.

You would go outside more?

Erm… Yeah, we need the internet.

What are your thoughts on the potential consequences? Tweet @StrategySMedia