Every time I open Internet Explorer I am greeted by my homepage: CNN.com. This morning, the top story featured a huge internet outage that has affected much of Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. The outage started on Wednesday and a telecommunications provider blames the outage on a major cable failure. The widespread Internet failure has caused major disruptions to business, television and phone services—and has even brought about chaos in some countries. I found the article interesting because it made me think about how much our world really depends on the Internet. The Internet is such a huge part of our lives because we rely on it heavily for a means of communication. I always knew that the Internet was a big part of our lives but because I use it everyday I often forget exactly how much I depend on it. This article reminded me exactly how important Internet is for our way of life.
Click here to read the CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/31/dubai.outage/index.html
Christie Batka
cnb9@cornell.edu
8 comments:
This was a great article to read. It reminded me of the numerous problems I had with my internet service last semester (including the morning of pre-enrollment). Basically, there was a week of time where my internet connection strength was so sporadic, it could be argued that I had no internet for that week. I remember being very frustrated at not being able to even check my e-mail or talk to my friends using instant messaging programs, activities that have become such a part of my daily routine that I often take them for granted. But truthfully, a week of having to go a computer lab to check my e-mail was not a huge inconvenience.
What could be a huge problem is exactly what is happening now in the Middle East. While I use the internet mostly for recreation, there are many individuals and businesses who use it for much more practical purposes. As the article said, the business section of Dubai relies on the internet for financial transactions, so not having internet access for weeks at a time could result in millions of dollars in losses. It's a scary thought because this sort of thing could also occur if Earth was hit by a solar flare, which could affect a large part of the world by disrupting wireless communication satellites.
wow, i had no idea this was happening in the middle east and although my immediate reaction was to how they will deal with personal comforts like email, IMing, online shopping, ect, this article brought the much bigger picture to my attention- jobs, businesses, travel; basically most of our everyday lives depend on the internet! If this problem isn't completley resolved soon, they could start having some serious issues and loose "billions" like the article states. The internet was of course a revolutionary medium, but sometimes the thought of how much we depend on it is almost scary.
I found this article incredibly interesting. My first response was to think how scary it is that we are so reliant on the internet. What would happen if internet throughout the entire world was disrupted, as opposed to just in a few countries? At first, I thought of this incredible reliance on technology as something new and specific to our times.
However, in reality, civilization has been reliant on technology long before the internet. Problems with telegraph or phone connections in the 20th century could have also led to huge financial losses, I imagine. At least now, we have other communication possibilities to fall back on when one form is disrupted.
But, then on the other hand, maybe there is a difference now because globalization has increased the extent to which distant economies are connected and rely on each other financially.
One other thing that surprised me about this article was its (relatively) calm tone. I was surprised that CNN did not sensationalize the loss of internet connection and monopolize more on the opportunity to evoke fears associated with our reliance on technology.
I just read Kirshenblat's comment and it made me think of something I want to add. I also had no idea this was happening in the middle east before reading this blog. I wonder if the fact that it is occurring specifically in the middle east could explain why more people are not aware of what is going on, and also why the media have not sensationalized the situation.
In general, because so much happens in the Middle east that is shocking to westerners, something as comparatively mundane as losing internet connection perhaps doesn't have the same shock value as it would if it occurred in for example a European country.
This was a fascinating article to read and definitely a real eye-opener. I, for one, am completely dependent on the internet. I remember a few years ago when the huge blackout occurred it was a very discomforting feeling that I could not use my computer/internet and I felt extremely disconnected. The internet has become such a staple in our everyday life and it's not until you read something like this that you realize how dependent people are on it. I also had no idea that this was going on in the middle-east. I hope that they are able to get everything with the underground cables worked out, or they could be facing some very scary financial/social dilemmas.
like any other technology that reshapes society, people become largely dependent upon it for their basic needs. such a huge part of our infrastructure is dependent upon the internet that i can only imagine how american society would function without it. the impact on middle eastern economy and communications might have major ramifications. at least problems like these might cause many nations to seek more efficient alternative means of connection other than undersea lines.
I also found this article very interesting. Have we come to a point in time where we rely so much upon technology that we couldn't live without it? I'ts a crazy thought, but could it happen? I believe it really could. With the way we ravage our world today and continue to take everything from fresh air to internet access for granted, it doesn't seem unlikely for trouble to be in our near future. If we contiinue to destroy our natural resources, exploit our nautral environments, and continue to live the way we do, there is no doubt in my mind our lives will have to change abruptly. So could we handle life without the Internet? To tell you the truth, I don't think its the Internet we need to be most worried about.
This article really highlights a critical thought that I have had in the past and still have till today, i.e. "we don't know the value of something unless we lose it." I personally couldn't imagine a day without the internet, life would definitely be on standstill. With more and more programs, emails, television, business markets, research, etc. depending on the power of the internet, I feel the world in the 21st century would be crippled if the entire world lost its capability to utilize the internet. The article highlights many specific important information about our society and global culture. We are definitely depending more and more on technology as we progress into this new century. Technology is awesome! but the dependability factor of technology is still limited. Therefore we must utilize technology wisely by having backup plans of the daily technology such as the internet we use. Therefore we must be comfortable in transitioning not only forward but also backward when needed in order to get a specific task done.
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