Hypothetically, let’s say the internet breaks down with no recovery in the near future. How would this affect culture in America (or the entire world)? Would monoculture return? The specific cultures I mean are…
Politics Influencers Big Tech Hollywood Work Force ???
Imo, with no internet, Hollywood would probably be the biggest beneficiary from this. Television would probably become a juggernaut again. I think influencers would fall off the face of the earth without the internet. Big Tech would crash. Politics would probably start to shift dramatically towards the left with the lack of echo chambers online. And I think labor would stall for like a month or two.
So yeah, without internet, I think Hollywood thrives and almost every other industry or culture takes a big hit.
What do you think?
I think we need to differentiate a bit between “no Internet” and “no open Internet”. I have just enough grey hair and health problems to remember what life was like before the Internet really took off: you dialed into your ISP, like Compuserve or AOL, over a land line, and were charged per minute. And those services couldn’t really talk to each other. But back then, computers also ran at 10 MHz and couldn’t fit in your pocket.
So there was even connectivity back then, it was just very limited and each ISP had to provide it’s own information, because they didn’t really talk to each other. The same technological advancements would have happened over the last 50 years. Computers and networking would have gotten faster, cell networks would evolve to handle data and be more efficient, and broadband access to everyone’s home and office would have happened. But if the Internet didn’t happen in the open way it did, with an emphasis on open standards, its entirely possible each major media company would have had its own network to subscribe to, and it would be a lot more expensive.
But would that really be bad? Would social media really have eaten our brains if we paid for it per minute?
Good retrospective on dial up. But I feel most people wouldn’t go through that hassle.
Right, I think without the Open Internet, we would still be getting fast broadband, but likely tied to your Cable or Telco provider’s network, and things that are currently websites would have to arrange for a presence on each network they want to do business on. And they would probably meter access, just like they do with your electric bill, or your cable company does with a basic tier but then paid access to anything important.