A different type of Lockdown

How would life be if we didn’t have the internet?

Here in the UK we’re in another stringent lockdown.

Take a second to think about your day to day life today and the role connectivity plays in that, is it now so pervasive that you, like me, take it for granted?

I wake up and look at the news sites on my phone (yes, I know that’s sad) and check what’s been going on all over the world, not any more, you’d rely on TV and radio news to tell you what they think you want to know, the newspaper? That’s already out of date.

Alexa “what’s the weather going to do today?” Again you’d be reliant on the tv/radio for this information, my weather app tells me precisely what the weather is going to do in my postcode the radio forecast is for my region, big difference. I make a coffee, notice I’m running low and re-order via my coffee app, not any more it's written on my shopping list and I’ll pick up what they have when I go to the supermarket, no more ordering that online.

Check work emails and see what’s urgent. What, working from home? Forget that if you don’t have an internet connection, no emails, no Zoom calls, no Slack, no work. You’d be off to the office and if you’d were forced to stay home without the internet what would that be like?

My Doctor is online, my dentist is online, my bank, clothes shopping, Amazon, this list goes on and on and all of it enabled by a connection to the internet.

What about downtime? No Netflix, no Catch Up TV, no Spotify, no Roblox or Fortnite. How about catching up with friends? You’d call them by phone and if really lucky be able to call two at once, no iPads with a screen full of laughing faces.

Lets face it, lockdown is painful enough (I’ve deliberately missed home schooling here, too terrifying to bring up) but imagine what it would be like without the internet…? However, that’s the reality for lots of people, on their own, isolated, cut off and deprived of nearly everything they had or could do before. 

Next time you are having a family debate about what Netflix film to watch or what to order online or any other interaction that requires the internet, stop for a second and think about those who don’t have it and what they would be doing or how worse off you’d be without it!

Connectivity really matters and those without are deprived, we want to change that!

- Ben Mansell Founder of theunconnected.org