The internet just went down! And it’s not just your wifi acting up,
or a local service outage, it’s down everywhere around the world.
What will happen? Communication breakdown? Mass panic? Even an all out war? Here’s
what will happen in the next 60 minutes as the world slowly falls apart without the internet.
In the first minute of a world without the internet nothing would seem out of the ordinary.
At this point, people are looking at their phones, computers, and TVs as they start to buffer or
display an error message. Most are thinking that their internet is just being really slow today.
Minute 2: People begin to get slightly annoyed that their electronic devices aren’t working.
Companies that rely heavily on the internet like Google, Amazon, and Apple know that
something is not quite right, but are still waiting for their backup servers to kick in.
Minute 3: There is collective panic around the world as people realize
there is something terribly wrong. Devices are rebooted,
entire systems are shut down and turned back on again, but nothing works.
Minute 4: Everyone holds their breath as they try and log back into social media
to see what is going on. Since there is no internet, Facebook, Instagram,
TikTok, Twitter, SnapChat, and all other websites do not load.
Minute 5: Instead of texting and using social media people begin to dial their phones,
but since modern cell networks rely on the internet to coordinate communcation,
even phone calls don’t go through.
Minute 6: People get frustrated. Phones are thrown against walls, computer keys are slammed down,
everyone now knows something is going on, but are not sure what the problem actually is.
Minute 7: People begin to calm down.
Minute 8: For those who are more level headed, using their landline to call their friends and
family to see what’s happening would be the next thing to come to their mind. This would be useless
as even the landlines are down as the central control system uses the internet
to organize the transfer of information.
Minute 9: TVs are turned on, and people begin flipping through channels in hopes
of finding one that works. But all they get are error messages stating there is
a connection problem. And without the internet, live streaming services have gone down as well.
Minute 10: People rush out to their cars or rummage through their old belongings
to find a radio. Satellite radios like Serius XM will no longer be broadcasting
as they use the internet satellites to function, but AM and FM radios will
still pick up broadcasts since they use radio waves. The world listens.
Minute 11: After the entire internet went down and the backup servers didn’t kick in,
the government and military start scrambling to find a solution. The president has been
taken to a secure location until the cause of the internet crash can be determined.
Minute 12: Law enforcement, fire departments,
and hospitals now realize there isn’t just a glitch in their systems
but in every system. All available personnel are called in to help deal with the crisis.
Minute 13: Due to power reserves being depleted the electricity goes off.
Much of the dissemination of electricity is done through smart grids. When the internet went down,
they quickly overloaded. There are surges and explosions at
power stations worldwide as systems either get fried or are shut down.
Minute 14: Some stoplights are still operational if they are on timers and
have an independent power source, but many turned off when the power stations went down.
People have begun leaving their jobs and whatever else they were doing to return home.
Minute 15: Vehicle accidents happen around the world as
there are few working signals still operational.
Minute 16: Massive backups occur as people flood major highways and roads to get home.
Minute 17: The beeping of the emergency broadcast system fills the soundwaves
as the government now realizes the extent of the problem they’re facing.
Minute 18: People listen to the announcement that the internet has completely gone down
for some unknown reason and that everyone needs to remain calm.
Minute 19: No one remains calm.
Minute 20: Planes are safely brought to a landing as their navigation systems do not require the
internet. However, some autonomous trains and vehicles have either crashed, come to a grinding
halt, or run out of track as their GPS systems are connected to the internet and no longer working.
Minute 21: The roar of generators fills the air as buildings and homes kick over to their own
power sources. These will work for a while but eventually will need to be replenished.
Minute 22: With widespread panic setting in around the world, all law and order breaks down.
Looters ransack shops and businesses. People start to panic-buy food and
water from every store simultaneously. There is a stampede for toilet paper.
Minute 23: Fights break out at gas pumps as people try to load up on as much petrol as possible.
Minute 24: Homeowners begin to barricade their doors and windows as a safety precaution,
like something out of the Purge.
Minute 25: At this point, businesses have been shut down except for a few
lingering employees and owners whose life work lies with the company.
Hospitals have lost access to their medical records, and some of the more high-tech
equipment is no longer operational, but they still prepare for what is to come.
Minute 26: Some people have located old TV antennas in their attic and have hooked
them up to their televisions. They watch the images being broadcast as politicians
try to tell everyone to stay calm and wait for the internet to come back on.
Minute 27: And still, no one remains calm. Supplies are
gathered from around the house or wherever people are hunkered down.
Minute 28: Buildings begin to get too hot or too cold depending on the weather as
there hasn’t been electricity from the grid for almost half an hour.
Minute 29: Service providers around the world now realize how much trouble they’re in. They
get in contact with other locations using radios and emergency phone lines that are not connected
to the internet. It is around this point that it is clear every severer in the world is down.
Minute 30: Corporations now realize how serious the situation is as their
IT technicians fail again and again to bring their systems back online. There is a mad dash
to backup company information. Techs run around with hard drives and flash drives,
trying to rescue any data they can in case the servers never come back.
Minute 31: All nonessential personnel that remained at work are sent home.
Minute 32: World leaders meet with their cabinets to try and decide what the next move should be.
Some have aggressive agendas while others believe they need to stay
vigilant and wait out whatever has caused the chaos around them.
Minute 33: The orbits of some satellites have started to degrade to the point that
they are getting dangerously close to the atmosphere. If the internet isn’t
restored soon and we cannot communicate with them they will eventually burn up
alongside all of humanity's hopes for returning to normality.
Minute 34: Religious leaders tell their congregants to pray. This may be the end of times.
Minute 35: Any transactions that were occurring at the time the internet went down have completely
failed. This means that money deposits, credit card payments, and cryptocurrency payments have
all come to a halt. If anyone wants to make a purchase, they need to use cold, hard cash—or
like many, they will end up grabbing whatever they need in the chaos that is ensuing around them.
Minute 36: Internet companies try to find workarounds to reroot or
piggyback off different servers. Nothing works.
Minute 37: Financial institutions realize that keeping their doors open will do no good.
Vaults are locked, but not before some are overrun
by people in a panic trying to get their money out before it’s all lost.
Minute 38: Sirens can be heard everywhere as the police try to maintain order,
EMTs try to help those who have been hurt, and the fire
department rushes to keep accidental and intentional fires under control.
Minute 39: It seems like all hope is lost. People were so used to having instant access
to everything they wanted through the internet. Nobody knows what to do now.
Minute 40: Real anxiety begins to set in as the addiction to phones
and the internet starts to hit people like having withdrawals from an addictive drug.
They can’t reach their friends and family. Access to news and information is limited.
Minute 41: Many people retreat from the outside world and rock
slowly back and forth, trying to cope with an internetless reality.
Minute 42: A few people breathe a sigh of relief as they realize the stress of
work and the demand to always be answering phone calls, emails, and texts is now gone.
Minute 43: People start to think that maybe this isn’t so bad.
Minute 44: Internet Going Away parties are organized and there are massive
turnouts of people who celebrate the fact that there is no more internet.
Minute 45: The government has figured out the cause of the internet going down,
but at this point, it does not matter. They need to act first and worry about the reason later.
They have been trying to reach their allies,
but with limited success. Every military branch is put on high alert; war may be coming.
Minute 46: Intel agencies rush to collect hard copies of files that may be useful during wartime.
Minute 47: Old radio broadcast towers are brought back online to try and send messages to more
rural areas that might not be receiving any information about what is happening.
Minute 48: Almost everyone is now aware that
the problem plaguing the world is that the internet has gone down.
Minute 49: There is a second wave of panic as new people find out how bad things have gotten.
Minute 50: Economies begin to crumble. We live in a global market, but without the internet,
this whole infrastructure comes crashing to the ground.
Minute 51: Bankers and stockbrokers try to keep Wall Street from crumbling but under the chaos of
not being able to communicate with the outside world or receive data on what is happening,
there is a firesale—plus actual fires—and in an instant, the world economy implodes in on itself.
Minute 52: Military personnel and assets
are directed to return home in order to protect their nations.
Minute 53: Scientists, engineers,
and programmers work frantically to figure out any way to get the internet back online.
Minute 54: People find their Gameboys and play videogames the old fashion way
to get their fix and pass the time.
Minute 55: Most people are either already home or will never make it home because of accidents
and the unintended consequences of mass panic. They still hold their cellphones in their hands,
hoping that the world will return to normal. They watch the staticky screens
or listen to the radio in horror as the world crumbles around them.
Minute 56: With no intel of what is going on in the world,
certain countries mobilize their military and prepare for all-out war.
Governments start blaming one another. Troops are sent to borders ready to defend or fight.
Minute 57: Young people turn their electronic devices off and back on again
in hopes that this will magically restore normalcy.
Minute 58: Adults remember a time without the internet, but it was so long ago,
and now they aren’t sure if they are ready to go back to that life.
Minute 59: Older generations sit quietly with a book, most likely on a rocking chair,
enjoying the stillness that left the world long ago with the invention of the internet.
Minute 60: The internet going down created mass panic. However,
it is up to everyone as an individual to decide how far the chaos will go.
It is important to remember that this is an extreme scenario and
some countries rely much less on the internet than
others. But in this hypothetical doomsday scenario, things could go very bad very fast.
But could the internet actually ever completely go down? Theoretically,
it is possible but incredibly unlikely. This is because the internet is not all housed in
one place but across different servers around the world. The EMP from something like a solar
storm could cause the entire internet to go down, but if the storm was that powerful,
we’d have bigger problems than losing the internet like losing our atmosphere.
Even if servers go down there are always others to pick up the slack,
so it is highly unlikely the internet would completely disappear. But if it did,
you and everyone you know will be impacted by it.
Now watch “Scary Internet Websites You Should
Never Visit.” Or check out “Last 60 Minutes of Being on Death Row.”