Hanyi #12 - Stopping the Internet
Since the establishment of the Internet in the late 1900s, its formation has been attributed as one of the most transformational inventions to humanity. Its ability to transmit information in a matter of seconds, to provide publicly accessible data for billions, to create such a lasting impact that generations born after cannot imagine a life without it, were all just bits of its legacy. Its legacy, however, has established a severe dependence upon itself.
Imagine this scenario: one day, as students across the nation open their computers, instead of connecting to their everyday websites, they instead all face a 404 error. Expecting this to be simply a temporary internet outage, these students patiently wait for it to resolve. However, when some go on their phones to pass the time, they witness similar errors as their favorite Instagram pages remain blank and unloaded. Across the nation, these events occur to all fellow students, and soon enough companies begin reporting the same problems. The Internet has gone out.
How would you react in this scenario? Having grown up with such a service that is used multitudes of times daily, I personally cannot even imagine going a day without having access to the Internet. All my data, my precious APENG essays, my amazing Blogger posts, all gone without an idea of when they will be back. This is unfathomable.
Thankfully, accomplishing such a feat of locking down the entire internet is near impossible. With thousands of servers around the world, it would almost be like trying to shut off every river in the world. What is much more considerable, though, is shutting off the major rivers that would stop the flow of its lesser ones that are linked with them.
Companies like Google, Facebook, Cisco, are some of the big names that cover these rhetorical major rivers of the world. They alone practically control the majority of the Internet, as they are the predominant search engines and ISP providers that link all the corners of the web together. Theoretically, if these providers shut down their service, the flowing waters of the web would be halted.
Can these privately-owned companies be trusted with such powers? The length of their control can literally prevent entire nations from accessing one of the essential services of modern society. With the words of certain mere individuals, they can possibly cause global catastrophes at command. Our entire societies are at the mercy of these individuals.
(The multitudes of purposes the Internet has come to serve for us. Almost all of them are at the mercy of private companies.)
Hey Hanyi! The thought of the internet just shutting off one day is certainly a terrifying one, and I am thankful that you pointed out the general impossibility of it. That aside, I do not believe that any of these major tech companies would ever do something like this on purpose since it would irreversibly harm their public image. All these companies would rapidly lose customers upon such actions, and governments would very likely take action against them after seeing the power that these companies are misusing. Quite simply put, they are far too scared of what would happen to them and their bottom lines for them to effectively wield this power.
ReplyDeleteHey Hanyi! Our daily reliance on the internet is honestly quite concerning and dangerous. So much of our livelihood depends solely on trusting that the networks and our technology are up and working. Personally speaking, almost all my schoolwork and extracurricular work relies on my computer and internet access. Technology and the internet are supposedly nothing but tools that we use to help ease our daily tasks but, as you pointed out, they play major roles in controlling our lives. While the idea of the internet shutting down for even just a day seems highly improbable, its implications could include global economies taking a huge hit as productivity would still. That would just be the surface level damage. The effect such an act would have on the general population and even our government bodies would most likely be much worse. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Hanyi! It is really terrifying to imagine the internet suddenly shutting off, which does indicate just how much we depend on it. Whenever we visit India, it's hard for me and my sister to deal with the fairly frequent power outages that occur. It's hard to imagine that that is normal in many places, while we are used to essentially always having the internet on. Basically everything that we do requires technology, and the internet shutting down for even just a day would cause severe consequences (if it were to theoretically occur). It is an interesting and accurate analogy to compare the major tech companies to the major rivers, but it is unimaginable to think of Google turning off its search engine. While they have the power to do this, the effects would be on a scale that is difficult to comprehend.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this new existential fear haha, I have never thought of this happening. I feel as though I am not a person who relies hugely on the internet but I do indulge in it and there are a lot of aspects which I assure myself that “those photos are backed up” or that the music I listen to will always be there. When Spotify went down yesterday, I was able to manage just hanging out with my friends but I agree. As a generation, we have grown up reliant on the internet and we all heavily rely on the constant and instant stimuli it gives us. I don’t particularly know if that’s a bad thing in the grand scheme, we’ve evolved, we’ve moved forward but it definitely is a terrifying prospect that one fine day these developments will cease to work.
ReplyDeleteHanyi, this post definitely highlights a fear in many people's minds, especially the minds of parents. Something that came up when I read this was that the power of the internet has affected the minds of young children. These days little kids cannot do anything without a tv show playing in the background which makes me scared about their futures and how they will perform their day to day tasks when they are older. Yesterday, the only way my parents were able to get my sister to come downstairs was to turn off her internet, yes I said turn off her internet. Being addicted to the internet has become so normalized showing the power it holds in society. Everything, and I mean everything, relies on the internet and without it I can say with confidence that people will die. Thank you for bringing awareness about this but sadly it does not look like the internet will be losing the power it has in society anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteHi Hanyi, your blog post was pretty interesting. One part that stood out to me was the notion of not having access to the Internet indefinitely. In our society today, we have become so dependent on the Internet, and it is such a crucial part of our lives. It's hard to imagine how we would react when it is suddenly taken away from us. It is also hard to imagine that a century ago, people did not have the technology we have today (computers, phones) and were perfectly content with living life without it. This really comes to show how drastically technology has changed our lives, whether good or bad.
ReplyDeleteHi Hanyi! I really enjoyed the anecdote you included in your blog. Your blog made me realize that I have so many things saved on the internet that I could lose completely if the internet was to suddenly shut down. I never thought about how all my digital past works from school and programs that I have coded will all disappear in the blink of an eye. I realized that the recent coronavirus pandemic has severely increased people’s dependence on the internet. Today, many little children have virtue classes, some people work from home, and others make a living off playing video games on the internet. The younger generation is learning to use the internet from a younger age and our overall reliance on the internet has greatly increased. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHey Hanyi, your blog really reminded me of how one time my dad saw me searching up on Youtube how to do certain math equations in which he then commented how he never had the ability to do that when he was in high school. Technology has been so deeply ingrained in our daily lives that it was actually really hard for me to imagine how people used to do all their annoyingly difficult school work without having the convenient access of the Internet to search up answers. As for the big companies having a majority of influence over the internet enough to possibly shut it down, the possibility scares me, but I doubt it would happen because of the catastrophic consequences that could occur. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Hanyi, the thought of not having the internet has crossed my mind in the past before and I agree that it does seem unfathomable. There have been occasions in the past where my neighborhood has had power outages and even not having electricity was difficult to handle. Being unable to heat food, have warm water, or turn on the lights freely truly made me feel restricted. I couldn’t imagine how it would have been if I couldn’t contact my friends or entertain myself with social media. Even though we are extremely dependent on the internet, hopefully this will not prove to be a weakness in the future.
ReplyDelete