I’ve chosen to write a variation on the below topic.

Theorize what would happen to our society if we suddenly lost access to technology for a certain amount of time.

When the Internet Died.

It happened so slowly not many noticed. First, our connections slowed, but that wasn’t a concern as there were often slowdowns and shutdowns. When that happened, it was a matter of waiting for it all to start up again, and it always did.

But the slowness continued all day, and by the end of the day, people were calling their providers wondering what was going on.

Their calls went unanswered because by the time they called actions had occurred whereby the Internet was in a process of permanent shutdown.

There had been hints in the previous months that something was not right. A foreign power had taken over so much of the Internet and had corralled the web and blocked off everything it wanted to control.

Suddenly we felt an immense vulnerability. Communication ceased, at least how we’d come to know it. Connection to overseas friends and business stopped, and we felt all alone at the bottom of the world.

On the third day of the shutdown, a news report announced a partial restoration of the web but we soon discovered we were restricted to sites only within our borders. The news service read out by a voice that was not from our country made it clear that a new and glorious Internet was on the way and we needed to be patient.

In the meantime, we were permitted solitaire as a game to occupy our idle hours. The novelty of this lasted precisely ten minutes before the net lit up with protests, marches were organised in every major city, and people began to wonder how we existed in the days before the Internet.

Hackers did their best to break through the blocks set up, gamers sought alternative ways of communicating, and before long a ‘black market’ internet was running only to be shut down by the Ministry of Communications.

Life as we knew it stopped. A weekly newspaper began to circulate announcing a new way; a change in the way life would be conducted and offered a new ‘hope’.

The end result was the evolution of small localised pockets of population all working together for the good of all and the internet only existing as a means of conducting business. Social media was not considered an acceptable way to communicate but rather seen as a waste of people’s time that could be better spent aiding the development of your local community.

Life became simple, people learned to cope, and the past became just that, the past.

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2018/12/30/sunday-writing-prompt-technology/