What would happen in the states if we lost the internet...

[Nate]

I've been thinking about this when my tiny little town lost their connectivity a couple weeks ago. My household seemed to freeze up, from the wife to the kid seemed to have nothing to do, almost went blank faced! I decided to look up how many U.S. citizens rely on the internet. It got spooky;


If The Internet Shutdown For a Day, What Would Happen?

What would happen if there was an internet shutdown?​

For millions of Northern Arizonans, they found out the answer to that question in 2015. Around noon on a February weekday, the internet stopped working for folks from Flagstaff to Phoenix.

A major fiber optic cable that fed several carriers and services was deliberately cut by vandals, stopping internet and telephone services for hundreds of miles.

During that time, debit and credit cards ceased to work, leading businesses to close or go to all-cash transactions.

Cellphones were useless, so there was no texting or calling. The cable cut also shut down most land-line phone services.

This put 911 emergency calls into peril. As reported to CBS News, “In Prescott Valley, about 75 miles north of Phoenix, authorities said 911 service was being supplemented with hand-held radios and alternate phone numbers. Yavapai County spokesman Dwight D’Evelyn said 911 lines were limited Wednesday afternoon and authorities couldn’t access law enforcement databases.”

Just curious, how many people's lives would be changed if we lost the connection to the world...

 

[Vrenn]

I've been thinking about this when my tiny little town lost their connectivity a couple weeks ago. My household seemed to freeze up, from the wife to the kid seemed to have nothing to do, almost went blank faced! I decided to look up how many U.S. citizens rely on the internet. It got spooky;


If The Internet Shutdown For a Day, What Would Happen?


Just curious, how many people's lives would be changed if we lost the connection to the world...

I'll just fire up my old BBS Software and it's back to 56K. Newbies will go into a murderous rage. Us Old Guys just do what invented the Internet without the Network Cards. Oh, and look for AOL to fire back up since it's nothing more than a fancy BBS.

 

[Natural Citizen]

I'll just fire up my old BBS Software and it's back to 56K. Newbies will go into a murderous rage. Us Old Guys just do what invented the Internet without the Network Cards. Oh, and look for AOL to fire back up since it's nothing more than a fancy BBS.

Those old 56K modems are handy to keep around.

 

[Natural Citizen]

But, no, there's always something to do outside or around the house.

I've actually been getting kind of bored with the Internet in general, to be honest. It makes life too much like that movie Groundhog Day.

 

[Nate]

I'll just fire up my old BBS Software and it's back to 56K. Newbies will go into a murderous rage. Us Old Guys just do what invented the Internet without the Network Cards. Oh, and look for AOL to fire back up since it's nothing more than a fancy BBS.

It's kind of crazy! I drive out of my town every morning, watching Kroger's truck drive in to deliver goods. It's a new thing for this town but I feel that, though we have all information at our finger tips, it's made us much more compliant and shiftless.

 

[JOSweetHeart]

Because of the different things that are done through the internet, I can understand why some people only find it as an inconvenience whenever such a rug is ripped out from underneath their feet. One bill that I normally pay online recently had to be paid by mailing a check because of whatever was going on with the company's website and phone number which only meant that paying by phone wasn't an option either. Once the website was finally restored, I checked and saw that my envelope got to the place on the very day that my bill was due, and it is a bill that I have never once been late at taking care of.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. The internet could be the only way that certain people watch their favorite TV programs too. In other words, how many people still rely on regular cable? How many people still rely on CDs and DVDs when listening to music and watching their favorite films now that all of that can also be done online? There could even be books out there now that won't ever be found in a store because they are only available online.

 

[Nate]

Because of the different things that are done through the internet, I can understand why some people only find it as an inconvenience whenever such a rug is ripped out from underneath their feet. One bill that I normally pay online recently had to be paid by mailing a check because of whatever was going on with the company's website and phone number which only meant that paying by phone wasn't an option either. Once the website was finally restored, I checked and saw that my envelope got to the place on the very day that my bill was due, and it is a bill that I have never once been late at taking care of.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

It's crazy! All of my bills are paid online, except for rent. Even though I was raised during the rise of internet, we've fallen into seeing our money as 1's and 0's instead of what we physical have. Wish I started investing in gold instead of putting it in the bank...

 

[Nate]

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. The internet could be the only way that certain people watch their favorite TV programs too. In other words, how many people still rely on regular cable? How many people still rely on CDs and DVDs when listening to music and watching their favorite films now that all of that can also be done online? There could even be books out there now that won't ever be found in a store because they are only available online.

Your P.S. hits hard... I'm in a Cox Cable area and will tell you that most people don't want their channels, they want the internet speed. Cox has become an internet provider in my area. They don't even try to sell boxes.

BTW, you're one of my reactionists on this this site. Appreciate you! From a lurker...

 

[JOSweetHeart]

^^^ Reactionist?

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. Thank you for appreciating me. You may not ever know how much that means to me.

 

[Road Runner]

I've been thinking about this when my tiny little town lost their connectivity a couple weeks ago. My household seemed to freeze up, from the wife to the kid seemed to have nothing to do, almost went blank faced! I decided to look up how many U.S. citizens rely on the internet. It got spooky;


If The Internet Shutdown For a Day, What Would Happen?


Just curious, how many people's lives would be changed if we lost the connection to the world...

You say that like it's an impossibility when I've lost connection to the internet lots of times before.

 

[Nate]

^^^ Reactionist?

God bless you always!!!

Holly

P.S. Thank you for appreciating me. You may not ever know how much that means to me.

My apologies, meant "Favorite" reacitonist. No matter what you comment on, you look at it in the best light.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I'll just fire up my old BBS Software and it's back to 56K. Newbies will go into a murderous rage. Us Old Guys just do what invented the Internet without the Network Cards. Oh, and look for AOL to fire back up since it's nothing more than a fancy BBS.

I got my start BBSing back in the 1980s, with a homemade 300bps modem that I interfaced via the joystick port on on Apple ][. I wrote software in 6502 assembly to poll one of the input bits in that port, looking for a start bit, which then used a carefully-timed 1⁄300 of a second loop to read in the data bits. A similar loop sent the output on an output bit on that same port.

Since it took longer than 1⁄300 of a second to scroll the screen using the Apple ]['s native routine to do that, I wrote my own scrolling routine that scrolled one line, checked the input, scrolled the next line, checked the input, and so on, working from the bottom up, and buffering whichever line was being scrolled. When data were coming in at a fairly high (for 300bps) rate, the screen scrolled in a rather interesting ripple pattern, as the scrolling was interrupted to handle the input.

 

[1srelluc]

Many basements would be emptied.

 

[Road Runner]

Many basements would be emptied.

And I'd probably have time to build one.

 

[shockedcanadian]

I'll just fire up my old BBS Software and it's back to 56K. Newbies will go into a murderous rage. Us Old Guys just do what invented the Internet without the Network Cards. Oh, and look for AOL to fire back up since it's nothing more than a fancy BBS.

What good would a 56k modem be without a provider though?

Citizens are fully reliant on the internet now, the Communication Age is upon us.

 

[Darkwind]

They used to have these bricks of wood pulp that had hieroglyphics. I think it was called language, and they told stories. Implausible stories of love and hope and life and adventure ...


... and friendship

I've got an entire room full of them, and I'd start handing them out, one per week, to My grandkids right after they came in from playing outside.

 

[Nate]

I got my start BBSing back in the 1980s, with a homemade 300bps modem that I interfaced via the joystick port on on Apple ][. I wrote software in 6502 assembly to poll one of the input bits in that port, looking for a start bit, which then used a carefully-timed 1⁄300 of a second loop to read in the data bits. A similar loop sent the output on an output bit on that same port.

Since it took longer than 1⁄300 of a second to scroll the screen using the Apple ]['s native routine to do that, I wrote my own scrolling routine that scrolled one line, checked the input, scrolled the next line, checked the input, and so on, working from the bottom up, and buffering whichever line was being scrolled. When data were coming in at a fairly high (for 300bps) rate, the screen scrolled in a rather interesting ripple pattern, as the scrolling was interrupted to handle the input.

I don't believe you were rolling with a "300bpms" on old lines. Pretty please ask me why I know that... Not the reason I was one the main folk in Albuquerque...

 

[HenryBHough]

You WILL lose the internet when Xiden's handlers figure out that communications are death to their plans.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I don't believe you were rolling with a "300bpms" on old lines. Pretty please ask me why I know that... Not the reason I was one the main folk in Albuquerque...

Not bpms, bps. Bits per second.

 

[aaronleland]

I was only about 13 when 56k modems existed. Do you know how hard it was to get molested by a stranger in 1995? 56k modems sucked.