So Facebook went down and jokes were flying.
Our favorite here:
Early morning on March 5, 2024, Meta seemingly had a giant outage that blocked people from their Facebook and Instagram accounts and did not let them log back in.
People went to X .. where Elon Musk was bragging his system stayed up during the great short outage of March 2024. He had his bragging rights..
When the socials slowly returned, people began commenting about how crisis level reactions were occurring during the hour and a 1/2 outage. Over the top… Outrageous people panicking over a brief outage of this nature showcased just how on the edge we all are…
Even on Facebook after META resumed its full strength, there are some people decrying how weak we all are as people.. Of course, many of the people making fun of those upset that Facebook was down also make money on their Facebook pages. And they would be upset and panicking too if the outage was a week and a half instead of just an hour and a half. Some websites had to remind their users today that they actually have a website and not just a social media presence. .
Without Facebook telling people to go to a website, most won’t. Sorry.. just ain’t happening until there is another cultural shift.
That has simply become the world we live in.
Back in the early 2000s we bookmarked pages and obscure websites.
Now if the algorithm does not give them to us, they are forever forgotten.
These are simply facts of the modern era after circa 2014 when Ellen took that dreadful selfie (ten year anniversary of that this year)
RAMIFICATIONS OF A META-OUTAGE
But it brings up some really interesting.
Questions not just about social media going down but all of it every bit of it.
Just think about the notion that everything that you do on the internet suddenly stops working websites, Facebook TikTok, Instagram and your email.
Also, couple that with the notion that you’re electricity suddenly takes a turn for the worse and you and all of your neighbors are without lights.
The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
If you charge your electric car in a charging station, you’re grounded in this potential future.
You’re also grounded even at a gas station since that runs on electricity as well. Your land lines don’t exist anymore. And even if you still have one, they’re tied into systems that don’t act like landlines of Ma Bell. They cease working as well
We posed a question today after the brief Facebook outage.. We asked, Imagine the world when social media is down–but so are phones and your electricity.. What is the first thing you’d do?
A few people said that they would knit or crochet. Some others said they would drink. Or express themselves in some sort of a consensual lustful relationship with their partner. One person honestly answered saying she would panic.
The shock was how no one said they would turn on a radio… No one said they would try old fashioned technology despite the fact it still exists–a bit–and could be utilized.
We don’t think about old-fashioned technology anymore.
But on days when outages that happened, maybe we should.
Maybe we should conjure up a future in which it feels a lot like the past.. All those staples and security blankets of the past have been shredded into pieces. When social media goes dark for just minutes, people do legitimately go into a form of panic.
While you scoff and laugh at those who feel the panic, be aware that we have all become accustomed and addicted to these social media algorithms.
YOU INCLUDED.
In a future when the power goes off–even for a day–your crocheting will get old fast and your beer will get warm even faster.
The world survives only when electricity keeps running.
So.. leave the world behind if it happens…..
x x x
SO joking aside. If the ‘big one’ happens… what would you do?
