I'm going back in time. Help me!

27th April: I have to do something this weekend. I don't know if it's possible. In fact, my palms are sweating just thinking about it.

I have to stay away from the internet for 24 hours.

I know, I know. Impossible, right? The very thought fills me with fear. How will I do my online banking? What if one of my writing clients needs to get in touch via email? How will I stay in touch with friends on Facebook and Twitter? How will I update my blog? How will I listen to music and watch funny videos? What if I need to look up a recipe? Or have a DIY question?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Jez has been a little scathing about my panic, to put it mildly. In fact, I think the words, "Get a life" were used.

But he doesn't understand. He doesn't rely on the internet. He still does lots of things the old fashioned way. He's all, like, "Facebook? What Facebook?" He has no idea.

This all came about after a story in the news this week. According to a new survey, thousands of us would be more upset about having no internet than we would if our water or heating was cut off. Almost a third of us think online access is more important than basic utilities.

I must say, those findings don't surprise me. I mean, just imagine life without the internet for a second. Everything would be so much harder. Everything would take so much more time.

If you needed to look something up, you'd have to trek to the library. (I love libraries, but sometimes you want an answer quickly and the internet is right there to help.) Or if you couldn't get hold of a friend on the phone, you could just send them a quick message on Twitter or Facebook.

Life without the internet would be a complete faff.

Alison agrees. She wrote on the Heart Wiltshire Facebook wall to say how much the internet helps her:

"We were helping one of my children with their homework last week and we commented on how much quicker it is to find info now. When I was a kid I'd have had to look in encyclopaedias at home, then go to the local library and finally go to the big reference library in the city centre to find the info. It would have taken ages.

Like online shopping. It's so quick, you buy what you need instead of looking at bargains in store, you don't have to queue at tills, put in bags, put in trolley, take out of trolley into car, take out of car into house etc. It's all time consuming and when you have four kids and hundreds of clubs to go to, the internet is a real help!"

But not everyone could see this point of view. Lots of people got in touch to say they thought me and others like me were addicted to the internet and should have an internet blackout to test how much we rely on it. Scary.

Caroline also wrote on our Facebook page. She said:

"I use the Internet in my job so I find I don't want to be stuck on a computer when home. I occasionally use it for banking and some shopping but prefer going out. I have loads of recipe books and there's nothing quite like using an actual map book when going places.

I find it quite disheartening to find you've been browsing the web for hours looking for stuff and then realise you've wasted a day, the Internet encourages people to be lazy.

I really resent the fact that my son has to go online to complete homework as it's too easy for him to just copy, paste & change a few key words to make it his own as he won't learn from that. My 6 year old rarely uses the computer at home but does know how through school. The Internet had its place in our lives but it shouldn't be so heavily relied upon as people will lose essential skills."

 Luckily for me, I'm not alone on my internet challenge.

Mum of three, Aly from Chippenham is joining me on the ban from 8pm this evening to 8pm on Saturday night. Like me, Aly writes a blog, loves Twitter, Facebook and all things internet related. So it means no Friday night tweeting, no Friday night Facebook action and no Saturday morning recipe hunting online.

Wish us luck. We're going to need it.