How seriously would the world be affected if the Internet suddenly stopped working?

Question

If it just suddenly popped out of existence, how serious would the consequences be? Obviously shopping sites and forums, as well as social nteworking sites, would disappear and so there would be a lot of angry domestic subscribers, but what about more crucial aspects of the economy and infrastructure- would these be adversely affected or do they have contingencies?

Thanks!

I know ten years ago the internet wasn't a big factor in how things worked, but how heavily do we rely upon it now?

Answer 1

People would have to start using their brains again, and they wouldn't like that at all.

Answer 2

A year ago I wouldn't have cared because I didn't even own a computer but now that I do it would be devastating !! I have ordered things on-line I do my banking ,pay bills and look up important information. I keep in contact with friends at no extra cost to me. The amount of money I have put out for all the bells and whistles for Internet could never be recovered. I have a lot of important things saved on my computer that I can't afford to lose! I'm sure everybody has the same story so if it affects me like that it would affect big business in an even more devastating way the word spam would turn back into something you eat rather than a way to make money!

Answer 3

The world would be affected very badly. For example, internet banking would be screwed. People would have to go to the banks to do something anything relating to banking. ATMs would not work as well. This means people would have to go to the bank to withdraw money. The queues at the bank would be enormous. Also, email would be down. this would cause a lot of problems. Go figure.

Anyway, what are you? A terrorist trying to figure out how best to disrupt the world? :)

Answer 4

I work in IT and I have seen on numerous occasions a whole company ground to a halt because the network is unavailable.
As the internet is made up of communites of networks and no one owns or manages the internet, the chances of the whole internet being unavailable is pretty slim so I wouldn't start panicking just yet.

Answer 5

Internet is much more more more bigger than we think. All of companies, Countries & every thing which uses an IT infrastructure will be down and just think what will happen. what you say means hundreds of hundreds of Billions disappear in just a second. I just cant imagine it. I think we can name it Ground Zero :D

Answer 6

We only rely on it as much as we believe, I only use the internet for amazon and emails, nothing more, well not yet. I found the internet is filledth total rubbish half the time and is rather boring after awhile.

Answer 7

well i would not have to make sure my firewall is on check my antivirus superanti ccleaner reg/repair ad-watch ad-ware spybot hijackthis did not have any nasty bugs on my pc so i can surf for more anti this anti that im getting fed up with dont have any space for fun things no i am not a high flyer bussines owner just want to send the odd emails even most of them are questions about bugs trojins

Answer 8

It would be terrible.
People would have to work for a living rather than spending all their time surfing.
People would have to go through the embarrassment of actually going to the newsagent to get their porn.
On the upside - No email clogging up your working day. Excellent

Answer 9

I think we'd be in real trouble, because think about all the internet banking, people paying their bills, all the share dealing online, travel and estate agencies that do a lot of their work via the internet. I think it would be devestating.

Answer 10

Devastating

Answer 11

Wonderful!!