Life in a World where the Internet and Phones are Dead

Can you imagine what the world would be like if the internet stopped working and every phone in the world was rendered useless? I know some people are thinking, “That is impossible. Anything like that could never happen, and if it did, we would just build it again.” To those people, I say, “You should have more fun.” 

Anyway, imagine that an alien race came down to the earth and took away the resources and technology that allowed the internet and telephones to exist. What would be that world like? It sounds devastating. Doesn’t it? But it has only been 144 years since the telephone was first invented and approximately 25 years since the internet was made available for public consumption. So in order to play this game, let us set some rules:

• Only the Internet and telephones will cease to exist from tomorrow.
• All other technologies including television, radio, flights, and even computers will still be functional.
• People were made aware of the situation 6 months in advance so they can prepare for and accept the situation.

With all these rules in mind let’s see how the world will operate in this unique—hypothetical—scenario.

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Communication

With the main source of communication dying off, the only way to move forward—at least for the near future—would be through letters. The government and the private companies should have started investing in the postal service, maybe even start training birds to carry messages. The focus would be to deliver the letter as quickly as possible. Maybe we could all own our birds that would deliver messages just like in the world of Harry Potter.

I can already see the advertising in my head:

• Owls and pigeons of Vodafone: Wherever You Want, We Deliver.
• Woodpeckers of Airtel: Small Messages, for Little Happiness.
• Jio Sparrow: Jio Assaman Mai  
• While the government still delivers the letters the conventional way.

Some messages will be lost, some messages will be read by the wrong person, but all in all, it will be fine.

Entertainment

The entertainment industry will be hit the worst as most of the high-quality content that is available for consumption is available over the internet. We will have to return to entertaining ourselves with books, outdoor games, or the same procedural shows that we used to watch during the 80s and 90s. However, because we know the extent of talent that exists today, there will be a lot more events in town that will include concerts, sporting events, comedy shows theatres, etc.

Even the radio will have to change as the demand for the new media podcast will flood the market. In order to meet that demand, the radio stations will have to think of a new way for the conventional radio and podcasts to co-exist in the same space.

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Economy

The IT sector will completely crash as all the work done in the sector is done over the internet. Many services will be rendered useless and it will also cause a lot of unemployment. However, the six month period will also allow these unemployed workers to find jobs in different sectors or even start their own business as the competition from the global market will see a steep decline. More factories and retail outlets are likely to open. We are also likely to see a number of new innovations that will change the way businesses are done. The processes will slow down in the beginning, but as we always do, humanity will bounce back.