Social media is so much a part of our life each day – not only do we keep in touch with people, we get our news, entertainment and product information from there. So when Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp all went down simultaneously, there was a predictable furore. There was one platform that was laughing – as is always the case – Twitter. Get the memes and find out why #WhistleBlower was trending as well:
As is always the case, when any or all of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are down, people hop over to Twitter to find out what’s going on. This was Twitter’s tongue-in-cheek response.
It was a global outage that lasted about six hours. But we survived!
People went over to Twitter to check – and were reassured that it was a global outage, not just a local glitch.
It’s like checking the neighbours' lights when we experience a power outage. If the whole neighbourhood is dark, we aren't worried - someone will get something done.
There was a lot of speculation.
For when social media is down, more people migrate to Netflix – good reason for schadenfreude.
This is the story each time – Twitter loyalists feel superior and smug.
Other platforms would have experienced greater activity and traffic.
Some don’t use those platforms so they were oblivious to the inconvenience others experienced.
This? Maybe Marc Zuckerberg and co weren't too sure what was going on, considering how long the outage was.
Later it was clarified that this was due to a router glitch… something like this, but not exactly.
This hilarious video spoofs everyone's reliance on social networks; by creating a Bear Grylls-like scenario about survival in the 'wild'.
Numerous influencers and content creators make a living off social media. For them, the outage means a real earning loss.
It is a little sad how agitated people get when they cannot access their social media.
Of course there were Squid Game memes. Henceforth there will always be Squid Game memes.
The Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp outage coincided with another significant news story connected with these social networks. A former Facebook employee Frances Haugen has said that the company is aware that people use these platforms to spread hate, violence and misinformation. However, they have hidden that evidence and privileged profit over people according to her.
Facebook has denied the claims; saying that such behaviour is not conducive to good business and profit. However, we as users do know about the dangers especially to our children, don’t we – even as we scroll down to watch the next Bollywood gossip video? Maybe the Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp outage is a chance for us to take a long, hard look at our own behaviour on social media?
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