What is the Internet Apocalypse?

What is the “Internet Apocalypse”? And how could it affect the daily lives of you and your loved ones? The Internet Apocalypse is a solar event that is being predicted by scientists and conspiracy theorists alike. If scientists are right, when the Sun reaches the peak of its 11-year cycle, known as its solar maximum. Scientists predict that the Sun will reach its solar maximum in 2024 or 2025, and those years are the years where Earth is vulnerable to be hit by a solar storm, which the Sun generates through solar flares. Solar flares are bursts of energy that travel at the speed of light and are made of electromagnetic radiation that can disrupt radio communications. None have been aimed at Earth so far, but this could change in the upcoming years.

…we would have no way to access all the money we keep digitally.

Even if you think a complete internet knockout would not affect our daily lives too much, you must think about how much we really rely on the Internet. Not only would the Internet be knocked out but cell towers could also be taken down as well, crippling worldwide communications. Today’s way of life is largely supported by telecommunications. Friends and family depend on their devices to keep them connected with the people they love. Businesses have become decentralized, allowing employees to work from home. With the collapse of the Internet could come the collapse of hundreds of thousands of businesses. The economy could fall below Great Depression performance. The results would be catastrophic.

Do you carry cash, or do you pay with card for most things? If a solar storm were to hit Earth, we would have no way to access all the money we keep digitally, and the amount of money circling worldwide would be an an issue. This could truly send us into a downward spiral because of how heavily we rely on digital money for everything from entertainment to food. Money makes the world go round, and the Internet Apocalypse could knock it off kilter.

…if a solar storm of this magnitude were to happen, it would be absolutely devastating for businesses who rely heavily on Internet.

How likely is the Internet Apocalypse to happen? Could it really happen, or is it just the crazed work of overly paranoid scientists and conspiracy theorists? The answer is that it’s not very likely. Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi, the author of the 2021 UC Irvine study, cited astrophysicists who put the likelihood of an “Internet Apocalypse” to be around 1.6% to 12% a decade.

This is good to know, but if one were to happen, as noted previously, it would be absolutely devastating for businesses who rely heavily on Internet. Think of all your favorite online-only shopping websites, like Shein and Temu. The era of fast fashion would momentarily come to an end. All the convenience of the Internet and online shopping would be gone. However, humans are resilient, and we’ve come through much worse things. If an Internet Apocalypse happens, humans will survive.

Written by Savvy Reed, The Reeder Block’s Summer Intern Staff Writer/Editor. This was edited by J. Reed. Follow my site for more.