Inspiron 15 5000, does anyone use a computer not connected to the internet?

It's a pity that I'm not seeing a more general place to post this, but it concerns a Dell Inspiron 15 5000 series laptop that was loaned to me, so I'll ask here.

I’m running into an odd problem where my computer repair person – whom I like and trust – said something that sounds weird to me. 

I'm only using this laptop as a word-processor, so it's not connected to the internet. Everything was fine until after a few months, the port refused to read the peripherals. I think that’s the right way to say it. It's an external A-drive. I took it to my repair place and they said the problem was that the laptop was demanding to be plugged into the internet for updates. And it took days to process all the updates.

Now, this never has happened to me with my elderly desktops. After all, I was only typing text. The shop said that from now on, this would always be an issue. The implication was that this was a factor with newer computers.

But this seems so illogical to me! Why should the computer care if I want to plug something into a port? What difference should it make if I plugged it in last week or this week? To me, this is like a refrigerator refusing to work unless I stock ice cream in the freezer.

I'm now in the same situation again! Everyone else I've asked, online or IRL, has said this is absurd. But, then again, most people don't have an air-gapped computer.