What to do when the network goes down?

The internet isn’t working today. My phone is stuck on a screen saying trying to connect. My laptop has this continuing circle of stuckness. It is seriously annoying.

When digital breaks down, it leaves you stranded.

That’s OK. It’s cool. Except that, when you depend upon digital, it screws up your day, especially for those working from home with remote access. You expect that the internet will work. In fact, you demand that it works. In my case, I actually have three internet networks for this reason. A backup with a backup. Even then, there are days where all three break down. Frickin’ telecoms firms.

It is a weird thing but, in this age, the internet and wireless has become as essential as electricity and food.

This is the issue with digitalisation. Whether it be with digital banking or digital commerce, when it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. So, how do we ensure that it always works?

I guess that question is that same question as to how to ensure electricity works. We live in a world where we are so used to basic essentials – gas, electricity, WiFi – that we take it for granted but, when it doesn’t work, what do you do? Even more essential, what do you do if the network stops working?

This was a big question a few years ago, when the Visa network went down. It was a hardware fault, as it turned out, but when society expects all banks and financial firms – in fact everything – to be switch one all the time, everytime, anytime, it makes it embarrassing when it doesn’t work … and sometimes it doesn’t

The core issue here is that we have become so reliant on the network that if the network breaks, we are broken.

So, think about this as it is happening a lot these days. Wars are between nations based on their networks.

I was going to add more to this, but don’t think I need to … it speaks for itself.