Would you vote to switch off the WWW?

[HenaLorne]

Just a lighthearted thread based on a dream I had..

..but if there was a worldwide referendum where everyone was polled if they wanted the internet and all IP technology/WiFi permanently switched off/destroyed forever which way would you vote?

Perhaps in my naivety I have this idea that it would drive people back to interacting more and lead to less social isolation. Nothing would have to be pre-booked online. Libraries would be more important. No more young children watching endless YouTube.

Of course it would slow down useful collaboration in many areas and limit communication in other ways.

It's a mad though but ..
would you vote ON or OFF?

Off ✔️

Sorry but that horse has bolted. I'd vote ON.

On.

There's drawbacks but many advantages too.

Off. Negatives outweigh the positives for me.

You'd basically put humanity back to 50's technology, I'm not sure many people would cope.

On.

It brings so many benefits. I think we have to learn to manage the downsides more effectively.

Www keep
Social Media get rid of

It’s a blessing and curse but I’d keep it on. I would, however, ban AI and things like TikTok which are just fucking up our young people. We’ve got too reliant on the internet, me included.

My work would certainly look very different!

I’m not even sure what it would like to be honest.

A lot of travelling to meetings.

Nope, I'd leave it on.

BUT...social media, I'd say off if that was an option. Or extremely limit it. Get in the bin, 'influencers'.

Leave all the shops and websites and general Internet stuff. But all the facebook/you tube/insta/twitter/forums be gone (yep even MN sorry). So like the Internet in it's far earlier years.

So much toxicity centred around social media and I'd happily wave goodbye to it.

Off to Social media

Tricky one.i think the Internet has been really good in some ways. I also think it has been a real force for evil. I did safeguarding training this week and 90% of the content was about children being abused via online activity.

It has has reduced face to face interaction massively causing increased loneliness and social isolation.
It has killed our high streets, again having massive impacts of people's wellbeing.
It has allowed evil people to find each other and network effectively.

It has changed people's sexuality and expectations around sex because of the mainstreaming of pornography.

So while emails are great, and it's wonderful to favcetime relatives abroad etc I do wonder if all that is worth the rest of the crap.

No online banking? No supermarket deliveries? No online shopping. Having to waste hours shopping and banking? No ability to make appointments online so you have call people in business hours?? No online holiday / flight bookings or reviews? Argh!

WWW is here to stay! Phew!

I'd happily switch it off now.

Keep! I mean just for the MNing of course and funny animal videos.

On. The global economy would crash and we don’t have the manpower in the world to do the jobs that would need to reinstated.

I rely on it for work (author), but yes I’d pivot and vote off and go back to the old ways (would get everyone’s phone numbers first😅). If we’re voting on things to save humanity I’d pretty much limit air travel/ travel to only necessary journeys too!!!

I absolutely love it and would never ever vote to switch it off. I have ASD and it helps me so so much my life is so much better than it was.

OFF!

I’d sacrifice day-to-day convenient shortcuts of online shopping/banking/email/takeaway deliveries etc if we could get rid of the negatives. I think a lot more people would have jobs if we had to go back to manual ways of working, and everyone’s mental health would improve if we were allowed down time again, and learned to live more slowly and didn’t expect everything instantly.

On.

theres no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Internet, WWW and devices to access, need to be better controlled, especially the ridiculously young age that children are given fully web-enabled mobiles at the age of 11 or 12 years old is child abuse imo. It robs them of their childhood, when they can benefit from a simple dumb mobile telephone to be able to keep in touch, not to spend hours on end browsing sites that they shouldn't be on.

the internet is both the best and the worse thing to happen to humankind. We just need to use our intelligence to ensure the good aspects are exploited and the bad aspects are mitigated with controls.

Internet on SM including MN off. I’d get so much more done and read so much more.

I'd keep it on but I'd ban all "social media"

Off

OP this is a good topic. Can you repost as a poll?

This for me too.

The hypothetical switch off would mean all or nothing!