As I began looking through news articles, trying to find a good topic to talk about, I began noticing a pattern. More things are becoming more reliant on the internet to work properly. While in itself, this is not necessarily a bad thing, I also stumbled across an article, written by Jack Dunhill, titled, “A ‘Solar Tsunami’ Could Entirely Wipe Out The Internet Within A Decade, Suggests Study.” While I am not calling for immediate panic and saying that we should abandon the internet as we know it, I do think that it is important that people do not forget that the internet should not be taken for granted – and that through things out of an average person’s control such as the sun’s activity or even hacks, that people should have some sort of backup if we were to lose this technology.
If you still don’t believe how devastating this could be for society, think of all the new advancements in medical technology that rely on the internet. Devices such as heart-rate monitors or glucose monitors will be completely unusable without the ability to use the internet. People who rely on the use of these devices could be put into life-risking situations if the internet were to stop working (“10 Internet”).
Although losing access to the internet would not be life-endangering for everyone, many things could be very challenging to avoid if the internet as a whole were to go down. If you own or have used a self-driving car, you would know that these cars rely on connectivity to the internet. These cars rely on the internet of things connectivity between sensors and the main computer, and without these sensors would be unable to function properly (Elezaj).
You can even see what I’m talking about by reading another student’s article talking about how Apple is trying to integrate driver’s licenses into their Apple Wallet feature. Multiple people commented saying how they rely on the apple wallet feature often. If the internet were to stop working, people would not be able to rely on any of these things that they previously had, and because there is currently not a real backup plan for if this were to happen, society could crumble as a whole (Caminiti).
Sources:
“10 Internet of Things (IoT) Healthcare Examples.” Ordr, 2 Dec. 2020, ordr.net/article/iot-healthcare-examples/.
Dunhill, Jack. “A ‘Solar Tsunami’ Could Entirely Wipe out the Internet within a Decade, Suggests Study.” IFLScience, IFLScience, 2 Sept. 2021, www.iflscience.com/space/a-solar-tsunami-could-entirely-wipe-out-the-internet-within-a-decade-suggests-study/.
Elezaj, Rilind. “How Do Self-Driving Cars Work?” IoT For All, 23 July 2021, www.iotforall.com/how-do-self-driving-cars-work.
Caminiti, Susan. “Digital Payments Soared during the Pandemic and Are Here to Stay.” CNBC, CNBC, 17 Aug. 2021, www.cnbc.com/2021/08/17/digital-payments-soared-during-the-pandemic-and-are-here-to-stay.html.
This is a great post, and I agree that society is becoming more dependent on the use of the internet, especially the American population. However, there is not a single sector that can function without the internet or other technologies. According to an article titled “Remote work frequency before and after COVID-19 in the United States 2020,” written by Kimberly Miltz, 44 % of the U.S. workforce teleworked five days a week during the pandemic. Therefore, more companies relied on security technologies that provide remote work capabilities in order to stay operational. Even though it may seem like society is too dependent on the internet, the truth is that; technology is a critical asset to the survival of most organizations, including colleges and universities. Currently, we are required to utilize Canvas to participate in blog posts. This application cannot be accessed without a connection to the internet. Overall, I am looking forward to more sectors leveraging the internet and other technologies to solve complex problems.
Reference:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1122987/change-in-remote-work-trends-after-covid-in-usa/
This simple answer to this question is yes. I think the internet plays a huge role in peoples lives. It wasn’t an immediate reaction, however; the addiction to technology and the internet was a gradual process up until a few years ago. Since then, the internet has taken off and has been in almost every generation lives except maybe the Baby Boomers and Silent Generation. This is because these generations did not grow up with the internet like the latest ones have. Many researchers have described Gen Z as having technology in our bloods. This has its pros and cons. Cons most obviously being that this can cause severe health issues if one were to stare at a screen all day and have high screen times. Pros can be that since technology is the new wave and is basically taking over the world, the most recent generations will do well in their careers since they already know so much about technology. There are also several different ways the world is turning digital and that will never change. The internet plays a role in almost everyones lives and is becoming an outlet as well. I believe that just about everything can be found on the internet and I know that I use my computer daily to use the internet for classes and such. There are also a lot of mental health issues that can be an effect of too much screen time. Depression and anxiety can be stemmed from too much time on social media apps because of the comparison of other people. Sadly, this will not go away anytime soon with how big internet is on the rise.
https://sossafetymagazine.com/internet-safety/the-effects-on-teens-spending-too-much-time-on-the-internet/#:~:text=A%20new%20study%20shows%20that,%2C%20obesity%2C%20and%20social%20isolation.
This post struck a chord with me. I began to think of my own internet usage and reliance within the last 24 hours and it’s shocking. From using social media sites such as Instagram and Snapchat to even checking the Speed Queen app to determine when my laundry is done, the internet has infiltrated almost all aspects of daily life. One of the features on my phone that I avoid is Screen Time on my Apple Device. Apple tries to encourage less screen time by showing you how much time you spend staring at electronics, but this is counterintuitive as it proves that Apple is constantly tracking your every move on the internet. Google searches and submitting homework are examples of the internet’s usefulness as a resource, but it is an entire entity that most of the world relies on to power homes, run businesses and perform other essential tasks. If the internet were to disappear, it would be detrimental to our daily life.
Internet censorship also affects how reliant society is on the internet for basic information. For example, information about the COVID-19 virus was an ongoing process. Censorship in China made it difficult to decipher which kinds of information was important to public health. Public health is a foundational aspect of news and information that can be published on the internet. People relying on the internet for health information that could potentially be false remains an issue in society today.
Resources:
https://www.american.edu/soc/news/societys-dependence-on-the-internet-5-cyber-issues-the-coronavirus-lays-bare.cfm
The Internet is a really big part of the world to play and I believe it plays a crucial role, somehow, someway in numerous people’s lives. I see the perspective you’re trying to bring in and I think it’s good to be looking at these things now, rather than looking past all the advancements were making and not viewing any negative effects. I think it’s okay to be dependent on some aspects of the internet, I mean think about how different our lives would be without it. We wouldn’t be interacting like this and I don’t think many people would have survived the pandemic without it. I was reading an article from the print about being overly dependent on the internet and a lot of questions arise from the usage and how far is too far when it comes to the future of technology. The article extends out so far to even say the internet could hijack democracy which is a concern I have heard more than once. I believe now we are in a good spot, but I am really looking forward to learn more about the advancement of the internet and the future of technology as we continue throughout this course.
Resource:
https://theprint.in/campus-voice/humans-becoming-excessively-dependent-on-technology-and-it-could-harm-future/686799/
I think your post made me think about myself and my habits with the internet and technology. I think a big part of what I rely on and would have trouble without is Google Maps. I think for me at least I would be able to read a map but I would have a difficult time following one for an extended period of time. I think that if I were going on a road tip and needed a map I would get lost. Although I would have a hard time reading a map there are people who still have maps in their car and use them. In this article people use them for many different reasons; not having service in certain places, as well as people refusing to use phones in their car. (Baig) I think these are both great reasons for having maps with them when driving however these are both older people who at one time did not have GPS. I grew up at a time where I never had to have a paper map and all I had to do was plug in my address and a voice told me to “make a right in 100 feet”. I think being able to read a map is something I would like to learn especially after reading where other people still have theirs. I think if there ever was a time where my GPS wasn’t working and I didn’t know how to read a map I would be in trouble. I think I rely on my phone for many many different things but especially this is one thing I would have trouble managing without.
Source:https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/02/07/are-paper-maps-better-than-google-maps-apple-map-gps/4647383002/
This post was very welly written and was able to make me start thinking. I would have to agree with you that we are too dependent on the internet. At one time, there was no internet and humanity by itself was doing alright, but since the internet has come out and become mainstream, we are very reliant on it. The reliance has not been bad, for the internet has brought many good things to us. It does things such as letting us become closer to each other through social media, go to a college halfway across the world without even being there, or even just work from home. My dad used to travel for work about 40 weeks out of the year, and now that Covid happened, he was given the option to just use zoom, and he happily does. The internet definitely has brought more good things than bad, but you are right that serious things would go wrong if we don’t have it at all. I was doing research and found there was a widespread outage on July 22 this past summer. The outage was for a few companies and most were fine without the internet for a few hours, but one of those companies was Delta Airlines. Delta had customers who weren’t able to access their flight tickets, so obviously this had caused a lot of problems. (Feiner) There are obviously the big things that we rely on the internet for, but it’s the small day to day stuff that I think could make the possible outage much worse for people than they think.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/22/several-major-websites-go-down-in-widespread-internet-outage.html
I feel like you raise a great point. I liked how you stated that it was important we not take the internet for granted. In a 2017 opinion article posted by The Snapper, Millersville University’s student newspaper, a student wrote that, “technology was created for the purpose of making our lives easier, but we have gotten so used to it being there to fix our problems that we, as a society, have lost our way” (Stahl). While I agree that if anything were to happen to the internet, a lot could go wrong, I think that it’s important to note things that already have. The article brought up things like increased buyers remorse, forgetting to live in the moment, and the inability to remember phone numbers. You brought up Apple Wallet, which I feel like is a similar point to the phone numbers. Without having things like memorized numbers, or credit cards/driver’s licenses at our disposal, our lives could be impacted in a major way. So, I think it’s super important to not take the internet for granted, and to use it in a way that ensures we’re not entirely dependent on it — just in case the worst possible scenario occurs, like you suggested, and the internet crumbles.
Stahl, Rebecca. “Technology Reliant Society, Has It Gone Too Far?” The Snapper, 19 Apr. 2017, thesnapper.millersville.edu/index.php/2017/04/19/technology-reliant-society-opinion/.
You are absolutely right, most of humanity has become too dependent on technology. This is especially true in Western society. The mass loss of Internet access in America would cause massive turmoil and some people’s lives to be completely destroyed. We have become incredibly dependent on internet based forms of payment, internet based storage through the cloud, and the almost complete phasing out of physical maps. If we lost these three things, humanity would be under extreme duress, especially in heavily industrialized and tech-based countries like America. There are more negative examples of things we can lose, but for the sake of not typing an essay I will focus on these three things. I know many people that rely on venmo and apple pay in their day to day lives, and often do not carry on sort of cash with them. This would make any sort of transaction very hard if these survives went down, as people would not have any access to their money. Next, the mass loss of personal data that would come with the destruction of cloud databases would be unimaginable. Almost everyone I know, including myself, stores some sort of personal information on the cloud that they do not have backed up on a physical drive in their own home. Needless to say, this loss of data could have potentially catastrophic repercussions, especially if a person has no physical backups on a local network. Lastly, the phasing out of physical maps in exchange for a more convenient maps app will perhaps be the most widespread problem in the case of mass internet outages. People should absolutely have a physical map of their local area, state, and nation with them wherever they live. Technology is great but can not be relied upon completely, and this is a very easy fix that most people will probably ignore.
https://www.austinwilliams.com/blog/are-we-becoming-too-dependent-on-the-internet/
I loved reading your post! I believe the issue that you have raised is definitely something to worry about. My parents live at an international location, and my mornings usually begin by getting a Good Morning iMessage from them. I’m able to receive an iMessage from them because of the internet at PSU. Your article really makes me think that I would be unable to reach my parents if the internet is not available. We won’t even be able to access our assignments through canvas if there is no internet connection. Internet is something that has brought everyone together, but has also made everyone dependent on it. However, I believe that it’s hard to imagine an alternative of internet. However, if there isn’t one right now, I doesn’t mean it never will be. Betanews in 2016 claimed that a possible alternative to internet might be Mesh networking.
https://betanews.com/2016/11/30/mesh-networking-an-alternative-internet/