The recent talks of a government shutdown have been quite a scare for many people. It has been over 15 years since the last shutdown in 1995. Back then the internet was nothing like it is now. It was a different society back then, and a lot of our society is dependent on the internet for information these days. How would a government shut down affect the internet and America if it were happening today?
The White House stated that critical websites would remain functional. IRS.gov would be expected to stay operational, as well as the US Postal Service. Agencies would be expected to list which functionalities would be available and unavailable during a shutdown. Most other websites would be shut-down or become very limited.
It is illegal for government workers to show up to work during a shutdown. Many government workers have been issued laptops and blackberry phones, so they would be forced to turn them in for the duration of the shutdown so they could not work at home.
This just proves that we should not be so dependent on the internet. If we were to lose the ability to control the internet it would mean bad things for our society and economy. The internet is a great tool and its a wonderful thing but we are learning to depend on it too much. If we lost control of the internet and the economy collapsed, it would be our faults. We shouldn't set ourselves up for a vulnerable position like this.
Nice post. I was following this government shut down stuff for a while. It freaked me out. I agree with our dependency issues with the internet. I can't imagine not waking up and checking my email, Facebook, and other websites. It doesn't seem natural. Perhaps we all need an internet sabbatical.
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