Facebook Goes Down and People Freak Out
Saturday, September 25, 2010
For two-and-a-half hours, many of the 550 million Facebook users experienced the "e-pocalypse" this past Thursday.
Two days ago, Facebook experienced an outage due to a glitch on Facebook's databases causing the site to be unavailable for a few hours.
As expected, Facebook was prompt with a resolution to the site's blackout and the site was restored without any changes. Facebook's representative, Robert Johnson, sent a public message via Facebook explaining the situation and apologizing for any inconveniences it might have caused.
Many were not able to update their status, share their pictures, "like" their friend's post, or comment on the trending news; activities that have become regular tasks for thousands, if not millions, of people.
Furthermore, something more impressive is the speed at which the news spread and the amount of attention it generated.
CNN, The Huffington Post, and The New York Times, to mention a few, reported this issue and kept updating their online posts as they found new details on the story. Other websites, like Network World and CBS News, went a little deeper into the story by reporting technical explanations to the outage.
Today, two days after the outage happened, news reports about the Facebook issue are still showing up on my RSS Feeds, which makes me think: Is the media being too dramatic or is Facebook so big and indispensable that it deserves that much attention?
Of course, this little Facebook incident has shown how addictive social media has become, but I do not think it required that much attention, specially if the site only went down for two hours.
Many were not able to update their status, share their pictures, "like" their friend's post, or comment on the trending news; activities that have become regular tasks for thousands, if not millions, of people.
Furthermore, something more impressive is the speed at which the news spread and the amount of attention it generated.
CNN, The Huffington Post, and The New York Times, to mention a few, reported this issue and kept updating their online posts as they found new details on the story. Other websites, like Network World and CBS News, went a little deeper into the story by reporting technical explanations to the outage.
Today, two days after the outage happened, news reports about the Facebook issue are still showing up on my RSS Feeds, which makes me think: Is the media being too dramatic or is Facebook so big and indispensable that it deserves that much attention?
Of course, this little Facebook incident has shown how addictive social media has become, but I do not think it required that much attention, specially if the site only went down for two hours.
Can you imagine what would happen if Facebook ever decides to close down the website? Heaven forbid.
7 comments:
This is a great story. Hearing about the stir Facebook created after its outage should prove to everyone how huge, and therefore important, Facebook has become. I mean, come on, it has its own movie coming out. Even here on Blogger there is a blog that informs viewers on movie updates.
Also, this story reinforces the fact that you must be aware of what you put on Facebook. Facebook has become- in my opinion- as the movie is titled, "The Social Network." With so many people looking at Facebook, a person needs to be careful what they share.
Exactly. I believe Facebook is becoming bigger than it should be. I have a Facebook page and I like to spend a short time on Facebook, don't misunderstand me, but I just don't like the amount of importance people give to Facebook. To me, it seems somewhat weird how a few people can't stay away from Facebook and spend hours in front of their computers.
I agree with both of you. It seems like everybody is getting addicted to Facebook and its scary. Some people act like Facebook is their whole life and I think that's kind of dumb but, I'm not oen to judge because I get on Facebook more than I should. I wonder if eventually the world will have to have a FA group, Facebooker's Anonymous.
I didn't even know that Facebook was down on Thursday, so thanks for informing me, Alejandro.
Alejandro, I also think Facebook is too popular for it's own good. Ever head anyone say, "If it's not on Facebook, it's not official." How pathetic is that?
Tara, when you said that people need to be careful what they share reminded me of the blog I wrote last week. If you read it, then you will really think people need to be careful.
Jesse, nice joke. If it ever comes true, I'm sure a lot of people will show up. I bet it won't be anonymous though since so many people add ridiculous amounts of friends. Everybody is connected somehow.
I remember Facebook being down and I like so many others was frusterated and ready for it to be fixed. Don't get me wrong i'm no Facebook junkie but I do enjoy spending time here and there on it.
When I first got Facebook back during my sophomore year of high school it was merely for my personal use and I wasn't concerned about others viewing it.
Now a days I try to be careful about what I do and say on Facebook because let's face it, everyone can see it.
It's a little scary to think that employers use social media such as Facebook to do a background check on you.
I agree with the fact that Facebook is becoming more of an addiction.
I didn't even know that Facbook was down that day, like Angela said, but I am sure I was in class or something.
Fortunately I didn't get my Facebook until I became a Freshman at Simpson. I have found that because I didn't get it until a couple of years ago, I am okay when I have to go without Facebook for an extended period of time.
Unfortunately I think my addiction is going towards Twitter now that we have to use it because it is so quick and easy to use.
There were some hilarious Twitter posts the day Facebook went down...saw an article from the Huffington Post about it.
I feel like Facebook is going to get so big that it will eventually get boring. There'll be so much to do/see that people will get overwhelmed by its enormity and stop using it. They'll try to revamp it so much to function like other social medias that it will get lost and be without purpose... Which might be kind of good because then parents won't know how to work it and refrain from getting an account.
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