Sarah Burness's Blog: Things to Do Without Internet: How to Make Your Internet Snow Day Better

Tuesday 23 January 2018

Things to Do Without Internet: How to Make Your Internet Snow Day Better

Remember snow days?

You’d wake up, turn on the television, and wait to see your school’s name scroll along the bottom of the screen. Seeing your school’s name followed by “Closed” or “2-Hour Delay” was probably the best feeling.

It meant being able to lay around in your pajamas, play video games or go out with other neighborhood kids.

Now, as an adult, snow days usually mean working from home if you can, or losing out on a day of pay if your kids are out and you don’t have that option. Adulthood can be a real bummer sometimes. But one thing that can still save you is an Internet snow day. What do you do when the Internet goes out and you can’t work?

The Internet Is The New Office

internet office

What did people do all day before the Internet and even before there were computers?

There were physical letters that had to be typed on a typewriter, physical filing cabinets where things had to be properly stored, and do you remember Rolodexes?

My goodness, the Rolodexes.

There’s so much in the office of yesteryear that most people today would not even recognize. Today, people in offices report:

78% of people who work in offices say the Internet is crucial to work getting done
60% of workers say they lose the majority of their productivity when there is an Internet outage
65% of office workers choose their location based on the Internet signal there

The Internet Is In Near Constant Peril

Solar flares and sharks can cause Internet outages.

Yes, real sharks can attack the undersea lines that connect the Internet between continents. Solar flares can knock out communications satellites, too.

The biggest threat to the Internet, however, are hackers. DDoS attacks have been responsible for many outages, including one that seized the unsecured WiFi connections of things like cameras and IoT to overwhelm Dyn, the system that routes traffic on the Internet. This knocked out access to popular sites like Twitter and Netflix for nearly a day.

For ordinary consumers though, sharks and hackers take a backseat to frustrating ISPs.

Things To Do Without Internet

Congratulations, you are embarking on your very own Internet Snow Day! If you are fortunate enough to work with really fun people, you could:

Go for a walk in the park
Check out an art museum
Head to the nearest thrift shop to rummage for interesting stuff
Have coffee from somewhere other than the break room

have coffee

Play a trivia game

And if you are still stuck in the office waiting and hoping for the Internet to come back on, there are still a few things you can do without Internet access:

Play the jumpy dinosaur game on Chrome
Pop a DVD into your drive and watch a movie or show
Write out your next blog post or social media post and just upload it once the Internet is back up

Will Internet Outages Soon Be A Thing Of The Past?

With great technology comes great frustration when it fails. That’s why ISPs are trying to improve the reliability of their service whenever possible.

Fiber Internet is one option for making the Internet more resistant to outages. It is physically stronger and lasts longer than cable. It’s also faster and this can decrease outages caused by traffic overloads.

Until the world is covered by Fiber, you should have a plan for your next Internet snow day. What will you do the next time there’s no internet?

You don’t get many snow days as an adult, so a little preparation can help you make the most of it. Learn more about the best things to do without internet from this infographic!