Is anyone else THRILLED that Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp are all down?!

[BlurpBlorp]

Just that really. It feels so freeing to know I won't lose an hour this evening to mindless scrolling...

I'm not thrilled, tonight I had to arrange some stuff on WhatsApp which can't be done over the phone. Unless I allocate a spare €50 to my phone bill so I can cover all the international messages and calls I need to make.

Nothing is urgent thankfully, so it will just wait until tomorrow or until people start answering their emails!

I don't have Instagram and don't check Facebook regularly so that's fine. On a side note, my 15yo sibling has discovered Twitter and are having a jolly time showing me all about it, like I'm a dinosaur or something

@Bluntness100

Can you really not control youtself? It needs to be down for you to not go on? That’s really unhealthy.

Take your family lives nearby don’t they. Mine live I. Another country. WhatsApp has helped me feeling if something goes wrong I can know and do whatever I need to be by them.

FB is how I kept in touch with friends across three continents. I’m part of a group of mums who had extremely premature/sick babies. It’s a closed FB group where we offer support.
WhatsApp is my lifeline to my family in Asia. Not everyone has an iPhone and texting is expensive.
It’ll be fine. There’s email and so on. But there are lots of memories on these platforms and lots of sources of support for people so while for some people it’s no big deal, for others it won’t be so easy.

@Blankspace4

I’m just hoping Microsoft Teams goes down just in time for the start of the working day 😬

Now THAT would be bliss.

Hope springs eternally 😂

Telegram is working

@EasterIssland

Take your family lives nearby don’t they. Mine live I. Another country. WhatsApp has helped me feeling if something goes wrong I can know and do whatever I need to be by them.

Presumably though then you're not thrilled it's all down and that it being down has forced you to stop using it.

I'm thrilled! Gives me a break from work and personal social media. Ive watch some tv for the first time in ages!!

Messenger and WhatsApp aren't the only video call options.
Zoom?
Skype?
Duo?

I don't spend my evenings messaging people I CBA with it. I message to arrange something, not to chat.

I know lots of diaspora families especially in the global South will be feeling the loss of WhatsApp. As I said texting is expensive. It costs money for my dad to send me an SMS. Even more money for him to call me. Yes there is email of course. But for a sick old man on his own about 12 hours away from me, the ease of communication was definitely the highlight of WhatsApp. (I care slightly less about FB although there too I found multiple sources of post natal support).

It does actually make a big difference for people who have disabilities or family that rely on connecting on SM . Anyone that finds SM annoying can always disconnect at any time 🙄

The smugness of posters who are happy that a lot of people's main means of communicating with their loved ones is not currently available is quite unpleasant IMO.

No. It is my best means of communication with my dd who lives abroad. And I have a personal matter going on and would like to have shared it with family. I have had to make phone calls instead which is nicer in a way but more expensive and time consuming.

[quote SleepingStandingUp]@EasterIssland

Take your family lives nearby don’t they. Mine live I. Another country. WhatsApp has helped me feeling if something goes wrong I can know and do whatever I need to be by them.

Presumably though then you're not thrilled it's all down and that it being down has forced you to stop using it.[/quote]
Is not using it the problem. If something happens to my family I’m not as easy to get contacted without WhatsApp.

I used WhatsApp in the early days but not since Facebook bought it.

Apparently the fb/insta/WA staff are locked out of their HQ in California. Maybe someone forgot to pay the leccy bill.

I'll add Open Accounts and Outlook to the outage wish list for 9am

My friend texted me to let me know that she couldn't post on instagram. She is annoyed but I am secretly pleased as all she's been doing is posting throwback pictures of herself in various bikinis from when she was on holiday with inane captions like, 'missing Marbella so much'. When she's not doing that she posts pictures of herself in lingerie that she's bought.

I'll never understand why women do this.

It depends on how you see it. Some people seem to think social media is the source of all evil (ironically voicing these opinions on SM)

Personally I think we are social animals and the way we live now, separated from friends and family often by hundreds of miles or more, is highly unnatural and SM that allows very regular communication with loved ones is the best substitute we have. That is why it's so addictive - it's more than FOMO. It's human nature.

I'm gutted, my partner lives in Oz, haven't seen him since Covid and we'd normally be having a WA video convo about now. Have sent emails but we need to see each other

DD tends to use Snapchat as her main method of comminucation of choice. She says that only old people use Facebook.

No I'm not thrilled. I use Instagram to conduct my small business and Whatsapp to communicate with a group of colleagues in my day job about important changes, shift swaps, sickness for the following day.
I don't use social media to post shit pictures of my dinner and I'm not an influencer. And I don't know anyone like this either. Not all social media is mindless internet use.

I'll never understand why women do this.

Why are you friends with someone you clearly dislike?

I'm annoyed as I'm in recovery and mostly contsct sponsor and other support network via WA. Have had to write my daily inventory the old fashioned way using pen and paper 🙈am on mn for first time in weeks tho

This is the thing, in a true emergency my family or friends would call me and no one would hesitate to pick up the phone and spend a couple of £.

But we are indeed social animals and the world is so much more globalized nowadays. I live thousands of miles away from all my close friends and family. I have a few 'friends' here, but not the type I could just call and chat about my day with. Say all the phones were down for some reason, I don't think I'd have anyone to talk to for days. I could probably learn my neighbours' names or pretend I have an excuse to go into work if I wanted to talk to other humans.

Back when people used to emigrate to Australia without social media or FaceTime, they would build communities around them. They would often move with their families. They would meet their neighbours and create a support system of people you could call from your landline if something happened. You would chat to your neighbours about your day, instead of calling your sister each evening because that would be too expensive.

Now we move abroad but in comparison have it so easy, keeping in touch with people back home. That's why no WhatsApp makes it so different for some of us.

I wouldn't say thrilled. Don't really care.
I only check WhatsApp intermittently- have everything muted- so didn't even realise it wasn't working until recently!