If you can turn off the Internet, would you do it?

[Biggusstickus]

If you can snap your fingers and shut down the whole global network, would you do it?

 

[glib]

Of course, it's enslaved the entirety of humanity through complacency.
There's never been a greater tool for the powerful.

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

Yes. We all need to go outside and touch grass.

 

[Idiot Doom Spiral]

100%.

I’m old enough to remember pre-1995 and compared to the current circle of hell known as modern life, those times were sheer, unadulterated bliss.

 

[A Welsh Cake]

No. I have no corporeal flesh form and my consciousness exists within the data of the internet.

Also turning it off won’t stop stupid people being stupid, just our ability to see them do so.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

I would turn off the web and go back before the gui and eternal September. Command line all the way.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

‘member when information was a lot harder to get and all your news came from three TV channels and some newspapers? ‘Member when you either had to buy an album at an album shop or listen to the radio?

 

[Maurice Caine]

No I would not.

 

[Creep3r]

First I'd download any roms, emulators, shows and movies I'm missing from my collections. Then I'd shut down the net forever.

 

[winterfag]

I'll turn it off whenever I go to sleep at night so the world has to wait for me to wake up every morning

 

[Dark Edea]

I would turn it off and break the button.

 

[Dysnomia]

Can I just get rid of Twitter and all the twats who use it?

 

[Angry Alt Right Nerd]

I'd rather turn off Kiwifarms tbh

 

[Osmosis Jones]

Actually tough for me to answer.

On one hand, my immediate response is YES. PLEASE. The internet is as cursed as it is blessed, if not moreso the former than the latter. It would cease the informational deluge and free a lot of weaker minds from the peanut gallery that is MSM. People would be forced to get hobbies and go out again. I've lost a lot of friends over time because they hole up and only talk through VOIP and instant messaging services, never wanting to engage with the real world. The tools for information like Wikipedia are so deeply undermined and rife with disinformation and outright lies that it's virtually useless. The fact that the powers that be can retcon any bit of human knowledge or history is extremely dangerous, and there are only a small handful of websites we turn to when we want to determine the truth. I don't know anyone who has a set of encyclopedias anymore. The nuanced lessons and epiphanies gained from reading actual novels is a chasm of difference from the little to be gained from TV, movies, and video games, much less by reading articles all day. You can name anything the internet provides and the organic alternative is going to be the healthier, safer, and most realistic option.

The internet is also the foundation of pretty much everything we use now, though, and the entirety of civilization would quite literally fall flat on its face if it just stopped working one day.

That's where I'm left with saying no. By shutting off the internet, every single monetary transaction across the world ceases to have meaning. You can no longer access your personal funds nor even pull up the numbers that represent your worth. Your connectivity to just about everyone will be diminished if not totally gone because even phonecalls are largely handled by WiFi if and when it's available. The phone networks would probably go down next if not with the internet because of the sudden inundation of use. Planes and how we manage that would be set back 80 some-odd years in an instant. Entire megacorps would falter overnight and operations would cease. Millions of people who rely on the internet for their jobs would suddenly have nothing to do. It's unfathomable how visceral the grinding halt would be if the internet just disappeared like that.

The internet is a double-edged sword. Not only is the internet the only tool capable of mass dissemination of information, it is also the only tool available to us to seek and find the truth. Without the internet we would have no choice but to believe what we are told and follow orders. Look at North Korea, for instance.

 

[Troonos]

Forever, without a second thought.

 

[Dyn]

Kind of sad how people feel this way but they're still here. Go touch grass.

 

[AMHOLIO]

If we turn off the internet we lose a lot of resources, both bad and good. I think the good ones are worth keeping, so no, keep it on. Just watch your children and watch yourself.

 

[Creep3r]

A better alternative is to disable internet only on all smartphones/iphones.

 

[Ultrapenguin]

As easy as it is to blame the internet for a lot of the world's problems I doubt getting rid of it would help since most of those issues are probably a result of other factors, you'd just have less info to deal with said issues. Better to let the world do what it's going to do and worry about yourself.

Kind of sad how people feel this way but they're still here. Go touch grass.

But how does one touch grass in Australia when the feral rabbits have eaten it all?...oh, I get it, that way dumb people will wander into the outback in search of grass to touch and die in the heat or get eaten by drop bears. Very clever.

 

[Glowie Hunter Art Bell]

Only if it could never be turned on again.

I'd miss my simracing bros and I'd miss you guys, but fuck everything beyond that. The economic collapse would be worth it