Should we turn the internet off?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions ponders whether life would be better in a post-online, analogue world
  
  

The unrecognizable woman holding a styled notebook in her hands at the desk near the typing machine and the analog phoneThis photograph is ideal for a wide range of research projects, articles, and marketing materials related to writing, creativity, productivity, and the fusion of old and new technologies. It encapsulates the allure of vintage-inspired tools and the enduring power of pen and paper in a digital age.
The familiar shape of future tech? Photograph: Posed by model; Nazar Rybak/Getty Images

The internet has turned fringe belief into mainstream politics and policy – from authoritarianism to vaccines. With democracy itself threatened, is it time to go back to a previous world of landlines, letters and face to-face-contact, audiotapes and Ansaphones? What would we miss about the online world that is worth the risk to liberal culture and basic freedoms? Mees Visser, Groningen, Netherlands

Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. Notes & Queries will take a festive break on 28 December. A selection of replies to this question, and the next new question, will be published on Sunday 4 January.

 

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