Did you know that according to latest estimates, Indians spend nearly 2.25 hours daily on social media?
This trend could be a combination of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and definitely WhatsApp. Obviously, these platforms have become part of regular life for several Indians; urban and semi-urban. Shockingly, almost 43% of school going children in India have signed up for a social media account! And be frank; grown-ups such as you and me also are always hooked up on Facebook, WhatsApp along with similar platforms. This could be in any place and at any time; the first thing in the morning, while having food, during work, and even while on bed!
Now, imagine half-a-day without access to any of these platforms? This came true in September 2021 when Facebook Inc’s services went offline for six hours in an extended outage that disrupted access for users and businesses around the world. That is, a large number of individual users as well as businesses across the world could not use Facebook or its related products such as WhatsApp, FB Chat, and Instagram for a good portion of the day.
Reason for the outage was supposed to be a configuration error. The outage cut off communications between Facebook’s data centres, leading to a cascade of disruptions as servers were cut off with each other. According to official statement from Facebook, the company’s internal systems were also affected. However, while this incident would have disrupted normal lives as we know it; think of the bright side.
For 6 hours on that day; you weren’t hooked to social media or the messenger on your phone. You had that much time to work more productively, to spend time socializing with those in front of you, to give some sort of rest for your eyes, and perhaps even save electricity. You could perhaps reflect on how important Facebook and its products have become in our lives. Also, there are plenty of negative stories shared on Facebook. It is like continuously sitting in front of news channels throughout the day. All you can see are reports about war, crimes, poverty, hunger, and so on. These could have massive negative impact on your mind and also influence how you interact with others.
In addition to these, have you ever considered how you compare yourselves to others on Facebook or Instagram? The human psyche is always filled with jealousy and an urge to follow trends. You, along with other users could always check latest posts about success stories and photographs on these platforms. Voices in your mind could be like, “Oh my God! He/she is earning so much in so little time!”, “Look at this person; How is he/she looking so good?” “The dress that he/she is wearing is lovely. But it is so expensive. How can I...?”
The list can go on. So perhaps, it was a blessing in disguise that the mentioned social media platforms and messenger tool were absent from our lives at least for a short while. We could identify that life, career and personal growth are much more than what you see or post on social media.
About the Author
Yasir Sulaiman is an acclaimed author of 6 books (fiction). A summary of his other responsibilities include being a poet, a YouTube presenter, a Technical Writer, a social media promoter, client coordinator, and a freelance communicative English tutor.