LIFE WITHOUT THE INTERNET

A lot of people my age, the over-the-hill generation, want nothing to do with computers. They’ll say things like, “I’ve got along without computers for 73 years. I guess I can get along without them for a few more years.” With good reason they scorn idiots who walk into traffic with their faces glued to their smartphones. Nevertheless, despite their wishes, these technophobes depend on the internet many times every day.

This point was made clearly one day in February 2015 when vandals cut the fiber optic cables that brought the internet to northern Arizona. Many places have a backup internet connection. At the time, Arizona did not. All of a sudden there was no telephone service, and it wasn’t just cell phones that didn’t work. A lot of landline phones don’t make calls over telephone wires but over the internet. The city of Flagstaff lost its telephone service. Citizens could not call the fire department or police department. Robberies were not reported. Police could not respond to accidents nor the fire department to fires. Eventually Flagstaff had to rely on the Arizona Department of Public Safety to dispatch the police and firemen.  North of Phoenix, 911 service was supplemented by hand-held radios. In Yavapati County authorities could not access police department data bases.

Television stations could not access weather reports. Broadcasters showed blank spaces on weather maps where weather statistics would normally appear. Students who wanted to email their assignments to their professors before the deadline could not get online.

Ordinary citizens were affected, and not just those who couldn’t check their email or looks something up on Google. Even the most hardcore Luddite has at least a flip phone for emergencies. These days everyone has a credit card or two and a debit card. One couple in Arizona decided to buy an ice cream cone. They wanted to pay for it with a credit card, but the vendor could not accept credit cards with the internet down. No problem, said the customer. On the other side of the street was an ATM. He crossed the street and put his debit card into the ATM. Alas, without internet access, the ATM wouldn’t let him get any cash.

Workers toiled through the day to find and repair the break. At 6:30 that evening service started to come back, but it was not fully restored until 3:00 the next morning.