Have we as a society become too dependent on the internet?

You all know where I’m going with this right? At least those of you who lost internet connection for most of the day on Thursday do.

There are more and more things that are internet-based and thus without the internet we can be at a loss to get some tasks completed.

I was at the county clerk’s office Friday and she was getting a copy of the marriage license that was issued Thursday. “I had to do it old school,” she remarked. That’s right, apparently those records are entered through a web-based program.

Many businesses were having to take cash sales only due to credit card systems being internet-based.

Here at the newspaper, we could do some things. I got my two articles written on Worland’s PAWS scores and the upcoming city street project. I just needed the computer for that, no internet required.

However, there are many things we do use the internet for, grabbing Associated Press stories, downloading the editorial columns for the opinion page and the editorial cartoons, the weather forecast and lottery numbers. Our advertising management system is web-based, our circulation (subscriptions) program is web-based so there was concern about when we would be able to print the mailing labels.

Thanks to one of the employees having a smartphone with a hot spot and unlimited data, we were able to download AP content, get advertising completed and placed and print the labels, finishing up just about the time the internet was reconnected.

We’re now considering a backup plan for the next time, hoping that there is not a next time, but realizing in a world inundated with technology it is inevitable.

When I first started this column I asked the question are we too dependent on technology? But that wasn’t a fair question because every year brings technological advancements. When I first started in journalism there were no emails and no internet, then there was just dial up.

But we in the newspaper business have always been dependent on technology — the typewriter, then the computer, then the laptop and tablets; but we still use pen and paper. Technology has made things easier … most of the time.

But the internet is another matter. Think of all the hacking — government agencies, banks, hospitals, internet companies, election/voting records.

Every time there is another hack my husband tells me the internet is going to be the downfall or our society. He may be right, only time will tell. But with so many things already web-based, giving hackers access to so much information, it’s a scary world we live in.

In 1995, Sandra Bullock played the heroine in the move “The Net.” The movie at the time seemed a bit farfetched because most people weren’t on the internet, especially ordering food and banking. But they are today. More and more businesses want to do direct deposit to make payments, more and more businesses are doing electronic checking. More restaurant chains are allowing ordering online.

In the movie, the villains kill one of the characters by hacking into the hospital and changing records. They manipulate airline reservations, they change and steal identities. Not so farfetched today as it was in 1995.

But, alas, this is the world we live in and we must get used to it and have backup plans in place, such as a cellphone that can be used as a Verizon hot spot.

Now, if the electricity goes out ….