I split this question in some parts.
How would it affect you in your social life and how would it
affect you in your professional life?
Do you think you can "exist" without the internet?
Would your life be better or worse without the internet?
Nov '22
Dec '22
Well, if that ever happens then I can have more interaction with my family and friends in person.
My work is based on graphic designs and 2D animation and if we lose the internet then might as well try something else for a living. Maybe join the military, I'm quite big, fit, and have the potential of being a soldier.
I hear it's healthy staying away from social media, I guess I could adapt to the environment around me. Talking to people instead of typing comments.
My hopes and interests are shaped by the internet. without it, there will be no platform for my comic work to reach people, as mine is too niche for the norms, the locals. Unable to reach audience & community with specific interests. I would feel so hopeless.
That would be horrific for me. At my day job, I work remotely over slack and zoom, and all our files are saved online too, so I wouldn't be able to work with that company any more without moving across the country.
For comics, I'd need to aim for working in print, which is something I've considered... but I'd have lost all my contacts in the industry, because most of them I only have email or social media addresses.
So I'd basically need to immediately look for work in print media, hoping that I can find contacts by attending events, and using the work I do have in print to show my skills. It'd be like when I started my career back in '08, but even less convenient, with the silver lining being that I've been published now and done work for big clients, which would help a lot.
I guess I'd socialise more locally. I have friends at the local tabletop meetup and things, and I'm a seasoned Dungeon Master who prefers running games in person... I'd miss all my online friends from around the world though. 
I think I would be really upset. I live very isolated so the internet is my main source of social interaction. I often see in older media where lonely people just sit in front of the TV watching bad day time TV all day, and I don't really want to turn into that.
I'd finally start going back to the library to borrow comics, books, and movies again. Don't need to do that with the internet since i can find whatever I want online. I miss chilling in the library all day
I miss those days every day. 100% of the young people I meet out of my house are starring
at the screen of their phone. At the bus station, at the traffic lights, on the bicycle, in the
park or walking the dog. It´s hard to meet people in real life. I still do that because I play
in bands and I also have a illustrator meetings but it´s really hard to motivate people
to go to the meetings, especially the ones who are younger. I still talk to people that I don´t
know and I think I scare some of them 
given the majority of things function online outside of just my own daily life i feel like it'd mean one hell of a chaotic world before people adjust to a life without net access
on a more personal level i've gone about a month without consistent access and just turning to local libraries for things that absolutely needed it and survived so while it'd be painful going back to I guess i could manage
There was a storm in Texas 2 years ago which knocked out power and internet for a week and I was miserable lol. My attention span has ggotten so bad that I started twitching after an hr of reading. Most social and professional stuff are online for me as well.
That said, if the whole world is like that, I think it’d be nice to just join a small art collective to organize in person. Things would move so much slower. I grew up in preinternet Asia, and the collective living is really the best way of living imo
It will take a great deal of mental excavation but I'm certain I'll eventually remember how to live in the era when you had to go to a bar to get into fight with a stranger instead of doing from the toilet like we do now.
Well, it would be bad to be left without any artistic friends, honestly 
I am not the one to seek new contacts and I never were, so I would have some trouble going out looking for friends with similar interests.
My whole art career (as in, not the art I am constantly drawing for myself) is only internet-based too, but maybe I would try and become an artist for the only one big comic company that exists here?
In all other aspects, I am not someone to get bored, as long as books, paper and something to draw with exists, I can probably live in a very remotes places tending to the garden or something 
This year having a social media presence and having to be constantly updated on a situation online gave me an enormous amount of anxiety, so if anything, on this level it would be even better to have none of the internet.
I lived before everyone having the Internet. I would live fine without it.
Thanks to how the world is now it would be a tough transition back. But I would be happy enough without it.
I'd probably take-up a career in kickboxing. I've been doing that for self-defense, but I've gotten to a point where I can do more. I also might say "screw it" and figure out some sort of way to tell my stories. Broadway actor sounds nice.
But I'm ngl being a kickboxer in a world where there's no internet sounds more appealing. Straight-up Fist of the North Star up in this mutha'.
The first I used the internet was in 1998 and I was 23 at that time.
I don´t have the feeling that I depend on it at all and I think that social life would be way better without
it because people would be forced to see and talk to each other again in real life
Hm ... it would make my current lifestyle a logistical nightmare XD I can't just casually hop into my car or on a bus without fare evading on a regular basis, so I'd have to walk everywhere if I want to do stuff - which is currently unnecessary thanks to the internet.
Or maybe the people immediately around me are equally screwed so there'd be more stuff to do closer to my location? That's the best case scenario 
On one hand it would help because I could focus on doing work without being sucked into doomscrolling, but then it would suck coz there would be no way to put my work/my name out there to people.
I would be really bored and basically out of a job (I'm an aspiring animator so ye) It'd be a big F in the chat
I actually hate using the internet professionally and have been working towards a future where I don’t need to rely on a social media presence for years now so I actually think I would fair well.
I have an agent who I communicate on the phone with who manages to get me advances on my work that are more than livable, my books are in hundreds of book and comic shops all over the world and my royalty checks can be pretty good, I (usually) do a lot of the big conventions and could transition all my networking to irl events (which honestly I have found to be more effective anyway).
I do use the internet for supplemental income but I could just pick up more work that my agent sends to me (the work I normally say no to) and it would honestly probably make me more money (though I would be suffering through some of it).
My comedy hobby is already something I have to do irl more than online since I’m still pretty early in it to be posting any of that online but honestly not having to think about how to post on social media would make it a lot easier for me. One less thing to think about.
I also live next to one of the best libraries in the states which is already an invaluable resource to me.
I do socialize a lot online but I probably socialize just as much irl. It might just force me to strengthen my local friendships.
All in all, I think I have done a good job of shielding myself in case something like that were to ever occur.
I'm somewhere in between. I lived for a while away from the internet and I was a little more relaxed, and that reminded me of when I was a kid and went to the park with my cousins ​​or watched TV, but I missed it. It's not an addiction. I know that I can handle it, BUT without it, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have learned anything I know now. I wouldn't know how to draw or design a comic. Then, I couldn't live without it but, it wouldn't be the end of the world for me either.
Depends on how long. I have enough books and comics (and offline games) to keep me sane if I have to stay home without internet. If it is down forever... well I think that would be the least of my problems as it seems the whole world is dependent on it - doomsday mode off, I think I would manage but it wouldn't be pleasant without as I love youtube and webcomics.
I know a ton of people harp on how bad the internet, and specifically social media, is and how it would benefit the world if it didn't exist but honestly, I'm really glad it exists. The internet has helped me promote myself to an audience that I wouldn't be able to reach outside of my neighborhood. Its also helped with interaction, making new friends and keeping in touch with old ones, along with family who live far away. That last part is something that's very important to me since due to the flexibility I have with my college schedule, there isn't a lot of room with social interaction like there was when I was in high school. If the internet was gone, I feel I'd be worse off
Local is not the same as reaching readers/fans nationwide or worldwide. Imagine going to a convention in a city you've never been to before, and someone approaches you, buys a comic, and tells you that they've been enjoying your art/comics- that would be the coolest thing for me.
Local and internet has both his cons and pros like everything but most people don´t know
what they miss because they never tried. I like trying everything. I´m not against the internet.
And the convention thing works with or without the internet.
My point is, don´t forget the real world, speaking to people, meet people, it is important
Indeed the Internet has its pros (and many forget how privileged they are to have access to the world to see your content)
But if it was gone it's not the end of the world. We were able to connect in person. What would happen is that oversaturation will diminish. brick and morter establishments killed by online stores will resurge.
Back to those days when you could promote your comic in your local small run comic store. Connect with people, organise cons,fanzines,flyers etc it was more personal.
A certain generation never experienced those days and the Internet is so engrained in the culture that it would be hard to transition I would think.
It's a fragile system we live in right now.
I think it´s a huge advantage to know and use both worlds.
I use online tools like emails but I never had the feeling of depending on it.
An email is the same for me like sending a handwritten letter or making a phone call
and that´s how I did it before the internet.
I work as an artist and a musician. I don´t depend on youtube or facebook for the
promotion, I play shows all over the world and talk to the people and I book shows
on the telephone. I will do the same thing when my printed comic comes out and
that´s where I see my advantage compared to people who only focus on the internet.
I drive from comic shop to comic shop, talk to the people, do quick drawings, talk
about the book, show my face, I do it exactly like I would propmote a music album.
Maybe I´ll sing some songs too or play the soundtrack of the comic
I agree with this. I feel like there has been a lot of benefits to the internet that a lot of people don't really think about.
Think of such technologies as credit card readers. And if we ever went back to the old way, I am pretty sure a lot of people would not be happy.
In the 90s it was called the Information Superhighway, and that is sort of how I still see it. A lot of people have gain access to information that they could not before. It has also allowed us to have a larger interaction on a global scale. And I think the international exchange of culture and ideas is something that is ultimately good.
Most days I feel it was more akin to giving a rabid chimpanzee a megaphone.
But I am often astounded at how fast we handed the entire thing over to advertisers, spy organizations, corporate misinformation peddlers, and other bad actors allowing them to operate on a scale they could only dream of last century.
All in exchange for the ability to look at unlimited porn.
I think you are confusing social media with the internet as a whole. I do believe things like email, online shopping, ebooks/digital libraries, internet archives has given access to resources that people might have not had off line. I do agree Twitter has always been a shitty website and I hate that people use it to define their whole identity.
...has been bent to the needs of the nefarious. So have all of the devices we use to access it. Any promise of freeing us from the old ways it once had is long gone.
But this is what we all wanted. Use it because these days you can't do much without it. But never lose sight of what the beast really is.
I'd be a walkway bricklayer. My favorite outdoor chore was making rock/stone garden walkways. Super satisfying to see when things get completed. Primitive Luxury.
Hm, I think the real world equivalent of promoting my comics would actually be posters/graffiti. Actually speaking to people requires demanding their attention, whereas on the Internet you just post something in a publicly accessibly spot and people can check it out or not of their own perogative. The line between 'speaking to/meeting people' and 'mutually braindumping in what happens to be the same spot' gets blurred.
... in fact, I will probably try posters or graffiti if the Internet does go down. At that point, purely cosmetic vandalism of public spaces is probably the least of people's worries
I'll tell people to come to a particular location during particular hours and bring a USB/computer so I can upload my comics onto it. No printing, no bookstores, I can't draw in cmykmy stories are free for the people
