Facebook, Insta, WhatsApp, Messenger down!

"You can take our fuel but you can’t take our social media. Do we have to actually converse with real people? What has the world come to?"

"I run a micro publishing business and I rely on Social Media to get my books out. When Social Media fails I'm left feeling frustrated and wondering what I'm missing out on. When a massive company like Facebook can't keep the lights on, what chance the rest of us?"

"Thank the lord that LinkedIn is working, eh? What would we do? I don't do any other social media during working hours, so I didn't even notice the outages. We are far too reliant on social media, it is like a drug."

2021, the year of the ‘Shortages’.

On Monday, the world came to standstill when the dopamine inducing like button froze, engagement was no existent and influencers millions of followers morphed into a cannot load screen. Can someone go and tell those dudes in Silicon Valley all’s they need to turn it off and on again, and they will have all their psychologically hooking tech back online!

"Normally I would appreciate a forced break from social media. As an e-commerce business, my whole working life is dominated by all social media platforms. I was just in the process of putting a new product up and advertising it this evening. I guess it can wait until tomorrow. Now I am going to put my phone down and enjoy some real life interactions with real people. Imagine that."

"I actually really love it when it all goes down. It forces me to switch off when I normally wouldn't! Orders don't stop, the world doesn't end and luckily my food ordering apps are all working great. Pizza night it is instead."

"TikTok rubs its hands with glee. Seriously though, I'd love to see the spike in users when this happens. Also, it rams home the message that you shouldn't put all your business's eggs in Facebook's basket - build your email list, at least that's data that you own."

"Oh my god. We have overloaded the system with constant posts asking if anyone knows a garage that has diesel. On a serious note, lots of small businesses rely on social media for business advertising and marketing and sales. It's yet another kick in the Crown Jewels for small, local businesses who rely on social media."

"Does this mean I might actually have to use the telephone feature on my mobile instead of sending loads of DMs? Shouldn’t being social actually involve talking to people instead of trawling endless pictures of cats or finding out what the neighbour is having for their dinner…oh wait…we still have TikTok and LInkedIn 🤷‍♂️"

This will show just how much a business owner has thought 'outside the box' when it comes to their business. Are people aware of their business enough in the real world for it to survive on word of mouth alone? The internet isn't disaster proof."

"Real face-to-face conversations, what a weird concept. And that's just with my kids who seem to have defaulted to communicating via WhatsApp. On a serious note, running an e-commerce business there's a reliance on social media platforms with posts scheduled well in advance and potential work to do to re-jig posts for the remainder of the week."

"We at SussexEDS are here to actively support ill/disabled members, build a community and advocate for them in different arenas. Due to funding we mainly use social media. Sadly, we can't do this right now and we just had an urgent message seeking support!"

2020 the year of lockdown 2021 the year of shortages and breakdown. 2022 ???

"This crash really highlights how tightly integrated we are with Facebook, without even knowing it. It's amazing that in this day and age, we are so reliant on one company, that when there is a problem, it can cause so many other services to crash, too. Perhaps we need to stop putting all of our eggs in one basket."

"Is it about time to admit that hybrid-working is the answer, while Facebook employees work from home to fix the social media outage?"

"It actually feels quite nostalgic with Facebook et al all being offline. My children (12 and 9) don't believe me when I say that I was 22 in March 2000 before I got a mobile phone. Well, kids - for the next few hours, welcome to the year 1999. While we have a fractious game of Monopoly, any chance someone could take TikTok down for a little while too?"

"In the words of REM, "it's the end of the world as we know it". I restarted my Wifi five times before I realised it was a Facebook issue. Is it time for me to admit I have an issue with social media? At least I can say it is work related!"

"Good, I'm glad they're down and long may it last. I doubt it will be as peaceful as this for long so I may as well enjoy being able to open a message without wondering if this is the one that plays a screaming orgasm to my fellow commuters. I don't think the world will stop if we fail to relay what we are having for tea. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll fax through a picture of mine if you think it will make your evening go quicker."

"So Facebook and WhatsApp are down. Hurrah! Maybe these should be scheduled in more often?"

Here I am trying to be all modern giving my clients updates on their mortgage applications via WhatsApp and now I've had to resort to email like all the mortgage brokers stuck in the stone age. Never mind.