WTF? OMG no ? say it isn't true. Facebook has gone AWOL! Instagram too? This cannot be happening!
If this was your reaction when the world's largest social network abruptly went down yesterday, you are not alone.
The outage was fleeting - temporary at worst - but for some it felt like that homestretch on the treadmill; those last five minutes that feel more like hours. I know this, not because I had actual real life conversations with physical friends, but thanks to alternative online vice-grips.
I shudder to think what the scores of savagely abandoned Facebookers would have done had it not been for micro-blogging outlet Twitter, which was quickly assailed by #Facebookdown posts that kept its feed scrolling well into the evening - even though the nightmarish Facebook failure was well over by 9am.
An online nation possessed, forsaken Facebook users' posts also flowed over into the many online news site and blog forums at their disposal. Ironically, even a #Facebookdown Facebook page was created after the Armageddon. Unsurprisingly, it had garnered a runaway total of nine followers by the end of the day.
Thankfully, WhatsApp remained intact - otherwise who knows how many shades of hell would have broken loose.
Apparently the Facebook outage had a spill-over effect, which caused the slowing or blocking of traffic to other major Internet sites as well, but no one noticed.
The olden days
The online outbreak following this short-lived downtime got me thinking about our digital dependence, our driven need to socialise and air our minds using the elusive platform that is the Internet - and what life was like before Facebook. Was there life before Facebook?
I mean, prior to 2004, where did we go when we needed instant attention from a pool of gullible individuals, sympathetic and quick on the draw with comments feigning solidarity?
How did we fool people, and lull ourselves into the belief that we were smart and skinny and successful, that - at the age of 32 - we didn't look a day over 23? How did we share our deceptively delicious meals with the world?
And as for the effortless art of subtle manipulation of friends and family, well I cannot even begin to imagine how challenging that must have been BF (before Facebook).
Lesson learned
If yesterday's downtime teaches us anything, it should be that the social lifeline so many of us have come to know, love and rely on could be ripped away from us at any time - and we would have to learn to deal and get along without it.
Touch wood, but should that ever happen, we may need to resort to archaic - sometimes painful - measures like face-to-face rendezvous'. We may also have to accept there will be a sudden and sizeable amputation of our friendship base and come to terms with who we are and how we look in real life.
Thankfully, WhatsApp remained intact - otherwise who knows how many shades of hell would have broken loose.
It's probably best we prepare ourselves now - perhaps through a slow weaning process. Of course, this is easier said than done - I mean, there would not be an online self-help manual on how to beat Facebook addiction if it was as simple as said.
On the downside - and as with any other dependence - there will be withdrawals. There will be times when you feel you just cannot do it anymore and you have to choose. Do you give in and get your Facebook fix, or do you white-knuckle on - telling yourself that this, too, shall pass?
In all seriousness, The Telegraph - among others - recently featured an article on how social media "addicts" (Twitter and Facebook being the drug of choice here) actually do suffer withdrawal symptoms.
It is said one in 10 people are predispositioned to have addictive personalities. According to the latest figures available, Facebook has more than 1.35 billion Web and 1.12 billion mobile phone users on a monthly basis - you do the math.
Feeling a little like a hypocrite - but convinced I was not one of the 135 million "such unfortunates" - I decided to take this handy online quiz to see how addicted (as if) I was to the social network. Turns out I am 33% more addicted than I thought.
So I speak to myself as well when I conclude that, at the end of the day there are no guarantees when it comes to the Internet. #Facebookdown could strike again at any time, so if your social life subsists largely thanks to Mark Zuckerberg, if you have difficulty getting through a day without Facebook - or imagining life without it - you may want to consider a little downtime yourself.
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