What if the world Ended? - Episode 1

What If You Woke Up and the Internet Was Gone Forever?

No warning. No explanation. Just... gone.

You roll out of bed, check your phone, and—nothing. No signal. No Wi-Fi. You reboot the router, curse a little, and glance at the blinking modem lights that never stop blinking. Maybe it’s just your service provider. Maybe a regional outage.

Then you check your neighbor’s phone. Same thing. You turn on the TV. Dead static. You hop in the car, drive to the next town, walk into a bank. They can’t access your account. They can’t even turn on the computers.

That’s when you realize—it’s not just you. The internet is gone. Completely.

Not temporarily down. Not hacked or hijacked. Gone.

The First 48 Hours: Confusion, Fear, Silence

At first, there’s chaos. Not the Hollywood kind with looting and explosions. It's quieter. More chilling. Offices sit still. Airport gates fill with stranded travelers. News stations don’t broadcast. You can’t call your cousin in another state. You don’t even know if they’re okay.

You never realize how much the web connects everything until it’s just… not there.

• Credit cards stop working.

• Hospitals can’t pull up patient records.

• Navigation systems fail.

• Food deliveries, online orders, ride shares—all gone.

We built our lives on something we can't touch, and now it's not answering.

Analog Comes Back—Sort Of

In the absence of pixels, paper makes a comeback. People dust off radios. Libraries get visitors. Bulletin boards fill with handwritten notices. Local businesses start using old-school ledgers and cash boxes. You see more people walking, talking, and asking directions. Kids knock on each other’s doors instead of texting for the first time in years.

Some folks adapt quickly. The older generation—those who remember pre-digital life—becomes valuable overnight. Rotary phones, ham radios, printed maps—suddenly relevant again.

But it’s not all nostalgic. It’s frustrating. Slow. People argue more. There’s no quick fact-checking, no distraction to scroll. Everything takes longer, feels heavier.

Winners, Losers, and the Weird Middle Ground

Not everyone suffers equally. Rural towns with strong local economies do better than cities addicted to delivery apps. Farmers, mechanics, tradespeople—they become the new elite.

Corporations with real infrastructure scramble to keep functioning. Some survive. Others vanish.

Governments try to reassure people, but without instant communication, leadership falters. Rumors spread. People rely on what they see and hear, not what’s trending online. For once, word of mouth matters more than digital noise.

The world shrinks.

A New Kind of Normal

Weeks go by. Then months. Slowly, society builds a rhythm. Not better. Not worse. Just different.

Conversations get longer. People look each other in the eye. There's less distraction, but also less escape. You miss some things more than others—music streaming, GPS, messaging your best friend across the country. But you find new joys too. Or maybe old ones you’d forgotten.

You stop doom-scrolling and start cloud-watching. You write more. Walk more. Think more.

Would We Be Better Off?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: maybe in some ways, yes.

We’ve outsourced so much of our lives—our memories, our friendships, our time—to a screen. When the screen goes black, we’re forced to confront what’s left. Some of it is painful, and some is beautiful.

A world without the internet isn’t convenient. But maybe it’s more present.

So, What Would You Do?

If the web blinked out tonight, would you panic? Would you adapt? Would you rediscover something you didn’t even know you lost?

Let’s hope we never have to find out. But it doesn’t hurt to ask the question. Let me know in the comments what you would do!

Learn more about Grover Bentley here.