Would you survive, without internet?

The Day the Plug Was Pulled

It started as a flicker. A pause in the WiFi.

A buffering wheel on every app.

Then, silence.

No notifications. No emails. No newsfeeds. No next-day delivery. Just a blinking router and a phone stuck in "searching for service."

At first, we laughed. We assumed it was a glitch. A blip in the Matrix. Someone somewhere would fix it. They always did.

But hours passed. Then a full day. Then three.The internet was gone.No apps. No online banking. No maps. No Google.

We didn’t even know the news was gone, because there was no way to read the news.

People didn’t scream. They wandered. Blank-faced in supermarkets with no tills working. Parents looked up from screens to children they hadn’t truly spoken to in days. Offices stood still. Emails couldn’t be sent, files couldn’t be accessed, calendars couldn’t sync.

Suddenly, the pace we were racing at had nowhere to go. The treadmill stopped.

And no one knew how to walk.

Survival Meant Starting Over

Without Google, we realised how much we didn’t know.

How do you purify water?

How do you make bread from scratch?

What herbs are safe to eat?

What direction is west?

Some adapted. Some built fires. Shared meals. Started reading old cookbooks. Looked to the sun and shadows for time. Dug up old hobbies. Played music. Held conversations and helped each other.

Others panicked.Not because they couldn’t scroll, but because they didn’t know how to exist without being constantly told what to do, where to go, what to buy, what to think.

We realised, perhaps we weren’t addicted to tech.

We were dependent.

So, Would You Cope?

If the grid went down tomorrow, how long could you function?

Do you know how to grow a tomato? Sew a button?

Entertain yourself for a full day without a screen?

Could you navigate without GPS?

Could you sit in stillness without reaching for distraction?

These questions aren’t doom-and-gloom.

They’re an invitation.

Convenience Has Cost Us Competence

We’ve traded self-reliance for speed.

We’ve outsourced memory to search engines.We’ve forgotten how to be bored. How to be present. How to simply be.

And maybe - just maybe, it’s time to remember.

You don’t have to wait for the collapse.

You can start now.

Put down the phone.

Pick up a skill.

Join others doing the same.

Practice presence, not performance.

Build a life that doesn’t rely on being "plugged in" to feel real.

Because one day, the network might disappear.

Heck, maybe we’ll want it to disappear.

And when it does - who do you want to be?

Laura

Founder, The Digital Detox Club