Why is the internet eating every way we do things?

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Since after the turn of the 21st century we are in the midst of this digital software and internet-connected revolution and it's threatening to extinct and is eating away at non-digital ways of doing things, and it can't be escaped. There are fewer opportunities every day to participate in this system without relying on some kind of digital or internet connectivity, everywhere whether business/employment or recreation like shopping or interacting socially. A kind of inanimate tyrant, if you will. It's just going to continue forever too, unless the only way to maybe halt it is if all institutions and individuals in society started a profound repudiation of it. And even if it did all go down, it will be a lost victory kind of thing because nine out of ten of the people on earth will be fatally doomed.

Does anybody on here think about this sometimes?

Yes, I do think about this sometimes.
Right now tonight that's the deepest answer I'm good for giving.

The computer and mobile phone was the first wave in which our lives changed forever from the late 1990s.
The internet was the second wave which we are currently in.
Not long from now will come the third wave which is artificial intelligence where almost all occupations we know today will be done by intelligent robots.

If you want to see how the future will look then watch the movie Wall-E. The humans basically live in a virtual state of having nothing to do except interact with screens. The reality will be there's no purpose to leaving your bedroom, We will all be like Japanese hikkomori.

Yes. But I am not sure if that will be forever.

I also often think about the BBC show, Years and Years, which had a really interesting take on the total digitization of things. At some point, there is a complete breakdown of the internet and computing as a whole, throwing the world back into simple electricity: light bulbs and rotary phones. Those who grew up without physical media found paper and books weird and clunky, and anything that didn’t have a physical component was lost forever.

If you haven’t seen the show, I highly recommend it. It’s been something of a comforting thing to think about these days.

I've thought about this as well, and haven't come up with an answer beyond trying to learn as much about as many things as possible, and having as much useful information in hard copy as possible. Which will not be nearly enough if something of this sort happens. Still trying to figure it out.

In an interesting sidenote, my almost-6-year-old was jumping on the bed and singing a song she made up that went something like "Too many computers/In this house/We should throw away/All of them/It's all computers/Computers are silly..." etc. I thought it was incredibly cute that she was making up a little tuneless song/chant proposing the Butlerian Jihad (from Dune). I look forward to my future career as a Mentat. Or possibly a Guild Navigator in a spice chamber. Either would work well for me, I think.

Oh yeah.

I think about it.

There are times I wish I could shut down my computer for a day and just "live in the Twentieth Century". Watch TV, and read books and magazines. Instead spending every moment on my computer.

Because of Covid and safety.

I'm going to online versions of the shops I'd go to offline last year.

That’s why I go on wilderness canoe trips to get away from all that.

I remember when Hurricane Irma took out all our utilities for a week as one of the happiest times of my life. Due to the heat built up in the house during the day, the coolest place was on the front porch. My husband and I spent evenings on the porch just sitting together and talking.

It is dangerous to base ones life on the internet to such an extent that one could not live if the system crashed. The internet is supposed to be a luxury to ones life and not an essential part of it.

I cringe when I heard one of my teenage nieces say "The internet is the future". I asked who told her that, because whoever did is very short sighted. I have been around long enough to realize how quickly things iin life have changed. When I left school, I was studying computer studies and we were at the forfront of the technology in that even if our school did not have it, our tallented computer studies teacher told us about it. Yet two years in college, and another year or two after that (So we are only talking three or four years) and everything I had learned became obsolite and not only obsolite, but I was now in at the deep end of what was new out and I hardly new a thing! (I still don't know a lot but I get by). So for her college lecturers to say such a short sighted statement is underestimating the changes that life and bring. Even my college years where I took a general engineering course became locally obsolite as the local industry collapsed and closed in mass as the recession hit hard during the time I was in college. The college has come under scrutiny as to why they still run these courses some 30 years on from those days where any industry in Wales of any sort is becoming hard to find, so why are we still training people to work in industries which are no longer there?
BUT, I do have one point to raise because how do we know the future will not have industries return to the UK? So maybe it is needed, as who knows... We could be at the forfront if life takes another unexpected turn!

The digital environment that we live in is very vulnerable. One massive solar storm might destroy vast quantities of digital content as well as the tools we use to access it. A major Cloud hiccup.

I hate it, and sometimes I feel that this pandemic has happened so that everyone will have no choice but to do everything online, killing the high street and local businesses. It is very depressing and I for one don't want to be a part of it.

Yes I use internet for some things like WP, Facebook, YouTube, Google and emailing, but that's about it. I'd much rather go out to the shops or meet my relatives or go to the bank or whatever.

I always get the "go online" answers from the internet and I hate it. "Miss being able to see your mother during the pandemic? Talk to her on zoom or facetime!" or "want to buy something? Go on Amazon!" or "need to transfer money? Register online and do it that way (oh, but don't forget security and all that technical essential stuff)!" or "want to see a movie? Watch it on Netflix!" or "want to experience nature? Go online and listen to recorded nature sounds!"

No, no, no! I want to be able to see my own mother in person. I want to go to the shops where I'm getting fresh air, exercise and social interaction. I want to go to the bank and transfer my money, as it's safer. I want to go to the store and buy a DVD, so that I own it forever without relying on Netflix. I want to go on vacation and explore the world.
Yes, technology is great. I have an iPhone that is like a best friend. But I still prefer to live a life without being ruled by technology. But it looks like this pandemic is a way to make everyone become screen slaves. I mean, what did people do during the Spanish Flu era when they didn't have all this super fancy-shmancy technology?

There are multiple ways our critical, electrical infrastructures could have serious problems.

https://cybernews.com/security/critical-us-infrastructure-can-be-hacked-by-anyone/

And let's not forget things like:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/21/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-natural-disaster-human-catastrophe-weir/index.html