What Would Life Be Like Without Our Phones or the Internet?

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In this article:

• Taking breaks from your phone are good for your mental health, but what would happen if phones and the internet suddenly disappeared?
• The short answer: global trade networks would collapse and economies would plunge into recession.
• But how realistic is it for the entire internet and all of our phones to stop working all at once? There are a few things that could pull off a catastrophe of that proportion.

What would life be like without our phones? It’s a question that many people ask themselves, and for good reason.

Our phones have become an essential part of our lives. These small chunks of metal and plastic keep us connected to the world around us. More than that, as a modern person, you also have a chunk of your identity inside that phone.

But our phones are merely a medium, the more important question is what would happen if the internet suddenly “collapsed.” And I mean suddenly, as in Thanos snapping his fingers to turn every internet server and connected device to dust.

Here’s what the short- and long-term consequences of that scenario would be.

So, What Would Life Be Like Without Our Phones (Or the Internet)?

Taking a break from your phone and the internet now and then is good for your mental health. But still, for a lot of working people, our phones are what we turn to for everything from checking the time to getting directions to communicating with coworkers, friends, and family. They’re our go-to for everything.

So what would life be like without our phones? If they suddenly stopped working, would everyone panic and run around screaming “What do I do now?!” Would it be as catastrophic as a killer asteroid crashing into the planet? Would there be some semblance of order left in society?

It might seem like an impossible question with too many variables, but let’s consider the most likely things that could happen if this became a reality.

The Loss of Communication Would Bring Everything to a Crashing Halt

Most people use apps to communicate these days. So if the internet died, you’d lose Facebook Messenger, iMessage, WhatsApp, and any other internet-enabled messaging app you use.

Plain text messaging would still work if just the internet collapsed. But with billions of people suddenly relying on texting to replace messaging apps, good luck sending a message through the overloaded system. Even if it does go through, there’s no guarantee the message will reach its destination.

But we’re talking about what would happen if both internet and phones died. The short answer: you’d need to stock up on supplies and go to your bunker, because the problems are bigger than just being stranded in the city without Google Maps. Why?

Well, if only the internet died, we could still limp through the crisis because some level of communication would still be possible.

But if all phones died, including satellite phones, navigation systems would go dark, planes would literally fall out of the sky — at the very least, they wouldn’t know where to go or when it’s safe to land. Even ships out at sea would also have to steer blindfolded.

If planes and ships can’t function efficiently (or at all), logistics and shipping companies won’t be able to deliver our goods anymore, cutting us off from basic resources. But that begs the question, “what about people in rural areas?”

According to the UN, around 3 billion people live in rural areas without any internet access. At first, these folks would be safe from the catastrophic collapse of societies happening elsewhere. That is, as long as they had a sustainable supply of food and water.

But once all these catastrophes start, people from the cities would likely flee to rural areas, soon congesting most of the farmlands. So yeah, you’d want to be in a bunker with a farm.

If you haven’t noticed, communication is probably the most important thing that the internet and phones do today. If all that was lost in a matter of moments, then expect Earth to be a living hell. At least, be ready to go to a farm on a remote island.

Economies Would All but Vanish

As you can imagine, without goods being transported, the economy would crash if all phones and the internet died. But it goes deeper than that.

Most of our money is stored in banks (which are now dependent on digital recordkeeping and automated systems). When the phones and internet go out, no one will be able to get their cash or even make a transaction because it won’t be possible to get a digital signature authorizing the transactions.

It wouldn’t just be consumers who can’t pay for anything, businesses would also be unable to make sales or fulfill existing orders since shipping and logistics would be nearly impossible to manage.

It wouldn’t just be a regional issue either. If we can’t transfer money electronically, that means countries won’t be able to trade with each other and the whole global system would plunge into a recession.

If you’re thinking about robbing a bank while all this is happening, go for it! Within a couple of hours after the internet and phones collapse, money would basically have little to no value anyway.

There’s also another thing to consider: Most companies today don’t keep records on paper anymore. Everything is stored on servers and in databases that can only be accessed with the internet. All of that would be lost.

Basically, without the internet and phones, a lot of us would be out of jobs and money would be rendered meaningless. Without alternatives means of paying bills or buying food, expect massive unemployment rates along with civil unrest.

While we could go back to trading goods in person, supplies would run out quickly if the internet and phones weren’t restored, because again, logistics won’t be a thing. You’d be limited to trading things you can make with resources you can gather locally yourself. It might be time to take up carpentry or weaving.

Healthcare

With planes falling out of the sky, ships heading nowhere, and people panicking in the streets, emergency and ongoing healthcare needs will surge, overwhelming the system.

Here’s the thing, though, without phones and the Internet, modern hospitals won’t have any access to your medical records or to the medical supplies they need to treat you.

Nurses and doctors will have to manually write down everything they need to know about a patient, which is not only inefficient but can also lead to mistakes. If you’re in a rural area with an old-fashioned hospital, then congratulations! You can still receive healthcare — while supplies last, anyway.

So if the internet and phones went poof, hospitals would be some of the last places you want to be.

Is It Possible To Lose the Internet and All Phones in One Go?

After talking about the biggest things that could happen if we lose the internet, let’s just say it’s probably better if we never experience that. Remember when Facebook went down back in October? A ton of people lost business as a result of just one tiny part of the internet experiencing an outage lasting about six hours.

Facebook might be a huge company but does that case really mean it’s possible to lose the entire internet and all phones with it in one go?

Well, it is admittedly a bit far-fetched, but nothing is impossible. Here are some events that might achieve it.

Electromagnetic Pulse

The first thing that comes to mind that could destroy all phones is an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). The burst of electromagnetic radiation can create sudden and high voltage surges that would fry any electronic components in any device ranging from a car to a bank’s computer system to your phone.

Depending on the strength of the current, the damage might be invisible to the eye but all your devices will just suddenly stop working. If the current is strong enough, though, devices could literally blow apart.

If a nuclear war starts, expect the internet (or a huge part of it) to go dark. Because nuclear weapons and some non-nuclear weapons are a major source for EMPs.

But even if we manage to stave off war and achieve world peace, the threat still exists. EMPs aren’t just man-made or from weapons. They are also naturally produced by light. For the most part, naturally occurring EMPs aren’t too damaging unless you’re directly hit.

Space collisions, whether it’s two meteoroids colliding or a spacecraft-meteoroid collision, would also create some EMPs. The larger the collision, the larger the EMPs. But, none of those things can be damaging enough to destroy phones and the internet.

One thing that might do the job, though, is our good ol’ sun.

Solar EMPs or Coronal Mass Ejection is a burst of plasma from the sun. That burst of plasma often comes with a huge EMP that would be enough to wipe out electronics in one fell swoop if it hits the planet.

The last huge Solar EMP was in 2012 and fortunately, it missed Earth. Even if it had hit Earth, though, our planet’s magnetic field would have protected us.

Still, if enough solar EMP were thrown at us that our magnetic field couldn’t block out entirely, it would destroy all phones and most of the internet. Even worse, it can destroy entire electrical grids.

That means you would have to think about what would life look like, not only without phones or the internet but without any electricity at all. That’s a much scarier topic to go through.

Hacking

It’s a huge question. But what if there was a hacker out there that could hack all of our phones, destroy them, and maybe crash the whole internet to cover their tracks.

I mean, have you watched Kingsman? In that movie, the villain goes out to send SIM cards all over the globe which they then use to transmit signals, amplified by the phones, that make humans extremely aggressive. The villain’s goal is to kill enough humans to reduce the effects of global warming.

While it’s a spy comedy, the concept (of hacking all phones at once, not transmitting a murder signal) is theoretically possible.

If the majority of people are using the same type of phone or at least the same OS — like how 99% of the world’s mobile phones use either iOS or Android — it might be possible for someone to target all these devices at once.

It sounds like Sci-Fi (and, right now, it is), who knows what people can do? If emergency alerts can make it through most phones, perhaps someone might be able to transmit malware that can kill phones?

It’s probably nearly impossible with our current tech and security features, but if the ILOVEYOU virus made it to millions of computers through email, it’s jarring to imagine what the wrong hands can do with our modern tech.

Can’t We Go Back to Old Times?

Now that we discussed some possible reasons for such a catastrophic event to happen. What if it really happened?

Could we just go back to the old times when people didn’t have the internet or mobile phones? Could we go back to using pen and paper to communicate, record, and manage everything we have?

There are about 7.9 billion humans on Earth today. Maintaining paper records for all 7.9 billion humans would be extremely difficult and inefficient. Then you have the problem of 7.9 billion mouths to feed without a proper logistics system that could ship food and resources worldwide.

While humanity wouldn’t go extinct, the aftermath of this catastrophe would likely wipe out a large portion of the human population and those who survived would need to adapt to a life that looks much different, and much harder than the one we know today.

Humanity Is Resilient, Though

The good news is that even in the worst-case scenario, we are still humans. And with generations of ancestors surviving catastrophe after catastrophe, we are basically standing on the shoulders of giants.

We are standing on the knowledge of our ancestors. As long as we have that knowledge, no matter what happens, I think we could survive.

What do you think? What would life be like without phones or the internet for you? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! It would be nice to know I wasn’t the only one who’s lost sleep because of this.