Jan
Can the internet be switched off? What impact would it have on the world?
Answer:
If this were a possibility (which it probably isn't unless there were some major disaster which affected all parts of the world at once — maybe a planetary collision for instance — of course all life on the planet would probably be "switched off" as well).
Anyway — Imagine what it was like before the internet was around.
People would actually be posting letters through the post.
People would actually receive in the post, paper catalogues to order merchandise from.
People would use the telephone to communicate (not that teenagers don't still do that incessantly anyway).
People would actually sit at the same table to play games together (a good game of Uno is still a lot of fun by the way).
People would be participating in more social activities (ice skating, bowling, swimming, etc etc.)
Governments could still lie to people and get away with it.
There would be more privacy.
People would have to share physical CDs instead of MP3s through a P2P programme.
The entertainment industry would probably be happier because it would be harder for people to access their copyrighted materials for free.
Bill Gates would be some poor dude working at McDonald's.
Answer:
People would have a lot more time for other activities.
Answer:
It cant. The internet is a large net of routers, and even if 30-40% of them were turned off, the internet would still work. The answer to the other question is probably it would destroy most of the developed world's economy.
Answer:
If the internet was 'switched off' it would cause total loss of communication. Although the internet is run by many thousands oif servers so turning it off would be almost impossible.
Answer:
It can't be switched off. It's… well it's not a big truck in that respect.
Answer:
good question. and if mobile phones didn't work either…..
Answer:
I would cry and cry and cry.
I don't think anything bad will happen.You will get a Few angry people.
Answer:
Would would be difficult to switch off considering as how it is a gobal "network" of many computers….switching off in essence would be merely just turning off a section of computers which has no real impact on the overal internet as a whole.
But let's think hypothetically about this…if it were possible to "turn off the internet" then what would happen? Well, just recall that there was a time when the internet didnt exist and it didnt affect people all that much…Recall that prior to the 90's the internet wasn't used by many (mostly universities and government). The general public just got by doing the normal things such as reading newspapers, buying magazines, calling on the telephone.
But let's now go one step further and say if we switched off the internet AFTER giving everyone a taste of what it was…in other words, shut it down right now…..Because the internet is continually wraping itself around several avenues of our lives such as internet banking or purchasing cheaper items i strongly believe a lot of people would experience withdrawal pains … especialyl the younger crowd who are very much into the soical networking sites. But just recall that it is "withdrawal symptoms" not sucidal thoughts by the general public if they lose the internet…so if you keep the internet away from the general public for 2 years then they will accept it as such … but think of it like a smoker who has proudly proclaimed s/he has quit smoking….every day from that day forward they will be yearning for that next cigaratte…twitching and all..
Answer:
Millions of kettles would be switched on.
Answer:
An awful lot of people would die of boredom, but to answer your question, apparently, if every computer in the world was switched off at the exact same time, the internet would crash, I don't know if it's true though.
Answer:
I do not even want to think what would happen: I don't actually think many people who use it would cope without it. I'm not saying it's brilliant to depend upon it, but it's increasingly becomming the case.
I say, turn it off for a day, just to see!! 
Interesting question, by the way!
Answer:
anything that would get the Internet switched off would be far more serious than having the Internet switched off.
Answer:
i just switched mine off and nothing hapened ?
Answer:
if the Internet was switched off, then by goodness it only means that's the end of the world for all geeks out there, kidding aside the only way you can turn off the Internet is to have the earth plunge towards the sun and the impact would be a great blast to all, no earth no Internet..got it…
Answer:
People who shouldn't be on the street would suddenly get out of their parent's basements.
Answer:
i would cry
Answer:
Actually so many things will go wroung, bussinesis will go down, in short the world will becomes stand still for a moment.
so amany services may not function, people will lose jobs..including u may be…etc.
but i will have more free time to thing about other things.
Answer:
Technically the Internet cannot be turned off.
Even if all of the commercial servers were turned off there would still be the military ones that need to function and the reason why the Internet was set up.
Also there are a considerable number of private servers either run by company's or individuals which would still be functioning. Some of these are also duplicated in the UK and US, etc. so if one fails the other takes over.
In the penultimate scenario where it all fails at once then there would be no money transactions apart from queueing at the bank. Shops would not be able to accept any debit cards, we would all have to visit the shops for our goods, no Internet purchases, no E Bay, no on line cheap flights and flight details, no chat rooms and of course no e mails so we would all have to queue up at the post office. no electronic books, no down loading music and no spam.
Some good stuff, some bad stuff but we would all have to adjust and live how we did 10 years ago.
Answer:
Oh my god what are you saying old bean… if the world wide web was shut down it would be a disaster,come on hit your self a slap what are you saying lol just think of all them ugly people,fat people,and computer geeks with no web to keep them stapled to their seats…… i will tell you …. they would be wondering about like mindless zombies on the street,bumping into each other and stuff and god forbid us.. ekkkkkkkk never close down the web..
Answer:
Well for a start children would have to start doing their homework themselves the old fashioned way by working it out for themselves and going to the reference library. We would all be reading more books (hopefully) would be communicating more with each other and perhaps it would help curtail a lot of paedophile activities. Book Mark it-> del.icio.us | Reddit | Slashdot | Digg | Facebook | Technorati | Google | StumbleUpon | Window Live | Tailrank | Furl | Netscape | Yahoo | BlinkList