The Great Social Media Crash of 2021

October 7, 2021

Spooky season sure came in with a blast with the short-lived yet daunting crash of Facebook, Instagram and What’s App. Aside from being a scare for Mark Zukerberg who lost nearly $7 billion within a few hours of the Facebook outage, I think many of us can agree that we were also not anticipating this event. [1]

What’s App just didn’t seem to work with that “Connecting” notification surfacing the top of the app’s screen. Facebook failed to open and my Instagram feed was stagnant. It was very interesting to see the number of times I forgetfully reopened these apps only to realize, “Oh yes, they’re down.”

Why did Facebook, Instagram & What’s App Crash?

Sources suggest that these three applications were not hacked, rather the problem came down to a networking issue that interrupted communication between data centers. Luckily, the engineers at work were able to resolve this concern within a few hours returning things to normal.

Reflections on the Social Media Crash

I would say that during this event, time slowed down for me. I was bored at first and just confused as to what I should do. I was very frustrated because initially, I thought my internet was causing all the trouble!

As time went on, I also felt relief from all the pressure, anxiety and guilt that would normally be scattering my mind from the long hours spent scrolling on my phone. I opted to take this time to run some errands, sit down and get my work done and even make time for a workout. Many of these tasks are normally rushed or dismissed because of lack of time. Where does this time go though? As you may have guessed, it is unfortunately wasted on social media!

This sums up the moods we may all have been through yesterday!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kurt Merrill (@kurtmerrill)

As dramatic as it sounds, the social media crash truly changed me. I have taken a decision to control my social media usage and to limit it to 2-3 hours per week; maybe this is unrealistically but your girl is trying! I will push myself to finish all my tasks and achieve my goals and build discipline around my schedule. I will try my best to not be bound by the borders of my phone.

I encourage you to push yourself to consider limiting your usage of social media as well especially if you feel similarly to me!

Wait...There’s something bigger to take away from this.

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A post shared by Wear The Peace® (@wearthepeace)

This Instagram post raises a very crucial point. It’s interesting how the social media crash was an event that caught the attention of so many users. This is primarily because of how attached we are to this resource. What we need to work on, however, in some ways more than others is to use social media as a force to raise awareness and do our part whenever we can. As the post above suggests, numerous catastrophes are overwhelming different parts of the world, yet the headlines are failing to provide them with the coverage they need. Let’s do our part where we can, moving forward!

Now, let’s laugh because social media just never ceases to miss the opportunity for some good memes even shortly after its crash!