The Consequences of a Technological Black-Out During Covid Times

The other day, the wifi was completely out in my town and the town over. I’m not all too clear on the details, but I think someone cut a wire that they weren’t supposed to cut. I’m no electrical engineer, but if that is really the case, the design of the electrical structure must have been pretty shoddy if a small human error could cause such a drastic community-wide disturbance. But who knows? There’s probably more behind this story than the few details I know.

Anyway, this day was so odd. It seemed like nobody was sure what they should do with themselves when they didn’t have a phone to soothe their social anxieties.

At work, every person I encountered mentioned the lack of cell service. The internet wasn’t working, texts weren’t sending, calling weren’t going through, ATMs were down, and the majority of stores were only accepting cash. Crazy day.

Our over dependance on technology to run nearly everything in our lives is quite concerning. Miraculously, the town was able to survive the following 10 hours without phones, but there was definitely a bit of panic in the air.

On my lunch break, I went to a restaurant and the amount of people drinking at two in the afternoon was outrageous (I can’t judge, though, because I also had a beer). Without phones to distract us all, people actually had to interact with each other. It was pretty nice, honestly. I’ll admit I missed my phone a bit, but that doesn’t mean they’re not unhealthy (not to mention, widespread) addictions that control our lives in more ways than I can count.

Perhaps this was just a fluke that would only happen in a small mountain town, but I can’t help but wonder how our world would respond had that occurred on a larger scale for a longer period of time. How would people cope? What would we do if all technology was down for a week? What about a month?

Everything about our lives would change. You think covid is crazy? Imagine covid AND no technology. Technology is how we’ve been coping with the chaos of the past eight months – we’ve fallen back on the relative comfort afforded to us by a technological age, but imagine what we’d do if that safety net was, all of a sudden, gone.

How would we communicate news on a large scale? What would happen to online classes? How would we keep in contact with loved ones in different areas of the country or world?

Of course, though, this does happen in certain areas of the world. When I was in South Africa, at the beginning of the year, they had this phenomenon called “load-shedding” where the electricity and phone service would randomly shut down for extended periods of time. Nobody knew when it was going to turn back on, but it was so common-place that everyone was pretty used to it.

My understanding about that whole situation was that the South African government sold a certain portion of their electricity to other African countries, and had to turn it off from time to time to make up for lost power (or something like that. But like I said, my understanding of electrical stuff is quite limited).

Anyway, if it happens in South Africa, who knows where else that could happen? The fact that so much of our lives are dictated by technology means that taking it away could disrupt everything.

It’s interesting to ponder, though. Surely, with no other option, we’d find a way to adapt to a different lifestyle, without technology. However, I have no concept of what that might look like. Our worlds would definitely feel a lot smaller and more intimate if we were only able to interact with people in our direct vicinity. Community bonds would likely get stronger (which could be good and bad). There would, for sure, be a revolution of sorts (in order to find a new homeostasis). Maybe our idea of money would change if we no longer had access to ATMs or credit cards. Maybe people would invest more time and energy into relationships and hobbies. It could be a very beautiful thing.

Ultimately though, this day was a bit of a wakeup call for me. Technology has taken control over nearly everything. Without it, we don’t know what to do with ourselves, and that is the most terrifying part of it all.