Boxed up in social media outage

W Ehave been here before right? We are enjoying the latest technology, and then boom, it vanishes.

The recent social media blackout is a reminder that traditional media will never be obsolete.

While social media platforms offer unparalleled connectivity and instant gratification, the recent social media blackout highlights the importance of diversifying media consumption habits and recognising the enduring value of traditional media including print and television.

By embracing television as a reliable source of information, entertainment, and community engagement, we can navigate through periods of digital disruption with resilience and confidence. We will not be ‘Boxed Up’ by the disruption, but we can navigate it.

Here is the context. On March 5 users of the services were reporting their Instagram wasn’t loading and their Facebook session had logged out. It led many people to worry that their Facebook and Instagram had been hacked.

It was almost the fulfilment of a prophecy that if we could have no Facebook and Instagram for a month, we would, for a change live our real lives not only keeping up appearances with heavily filtered pictures. We could reset from being a depressed generation with smiling pictures to one that confronts and slays its dragons. But sadly, it was only for an hour. Yes sadly. Kindly read on.

Reaching out to search engines for quick hacks, we were advised to perhaps uninstall and reinstall the App. Nothing changed. Around 500 000 Facebook users have reported issues, with Down Detector showing a spike mid-morning.

According to a Forbes article titled Facebook And Instagram Down—Here’s Why,

Experts from software giant Cisco’s Thousand Eyes Internet

Intelligence team have analysed the Meta outage. This team— which actively monitors the reachability and performance of thousands of services and networks across the global internet—the Meta outage was probably caused by an issue with a backend service such as authentication.

Alright, now away from the technical issues. Reality has hit home, once again, that we cannot be over-reliant on social media. Over the years, since the advent of Facebook and Instagram, it has become synonymous with our lives. So much so that we have seen even companies and global organisations set up Facebook pages because that is where their audiences are.

There has been a lot of talk that this would lead to the obsoleteness of traditional media. Suggestions that people will never buy a hard copy newspaper again because they get news on the go on their phones. They get to see pictures and videos instantly from citizen journalists while traditional media will publish the next day. They feel that television does not have the same instant response as a live video from a cellphone.

STRONGER

It does not have the freedom of a podcast that can get in controversial guests they wish. Over the years, the argument against traditional media has grown louder and stronger.

But with each fact, we are reminded by incidents such as March 5, that we still need to rely on traditional media. To put a pun, we need to rely on them because they are reliable.

During such blackouts, the quickest information you can get is radio, television and print. If the print is unavailable on Facebook their websites will be up. Looking at all this, one is pleased that the debate comes at a time when the country’s national television station has begun a repositioning journey that is instilling confidence in it again.

This journey coincides with the appointment of the station’s new captain, Mlamuli Dlamini. The new CEO of Eswatini TV has the posture of a modern leader and has spent a better part of his life within environments where tech and excellence thrive.

From his few public appearances we have seen him address staff, go to SA to benchmark on the latest TV trends and also host the unveiling of new TV programmes at the Gables Movie Zone. In just a few months, we have also seen some must-watch programmes. The programme that hosts Cabinet ministers each week is something you cannot miss.

At the genesis of their term, we are all itching to know their views and plans to deal with some of each sector’s burning issues. We are all eager to know what Nkwe! means to them.

The episodes have not disappointed me so far. It is apparent that the new CEO has already adopted the Nkwe! Mantra and we look forward to seeing more innovation and growth through him and his team.

I mention Dlamini and Eswatini TV because over the years, we have grown reliant on consuming our videos and media via our phones and tablets and forgotten that TV and radio remain the most reliable form of media together with print. These channels are discipled by Codes of Ethics and public duty to empower with responsible information.

Taking a break from Facebook for that hour during the blackout made me appreciate the basics of traditional media and how they are rarely affected by such outages. One of the unique things about television is that it allows for a shared, communal viewing experience. People can gather around the TV to watch a show or movie together, creating a sense of community and connection. Think the recent Rugby World Cup, the Africa Cup of Nations and this weekend the Manchester City and Liverpool title decider. All those cannot be streamed and enjoyed at the same level as watching with a group. And streaming may buffer just as Halaand is about to score.

You want to catch things in real-time. This is something that streaming services, which are often consumed on individual devices, cannot replicate. Watching content on the big screen makes for a more exciting experience.

While companies have rushed to place their adverts and products on social media, you just cannot replace having an advert on TV and the impact it has on us. Back in the day, Swazi TV as it was known had programmes like Nik Naks Catch the Beat show hosted by the gorgeous Candy Litchfield and later Liqui Fruit Extravaganza hosted by the eloquent Lelo Ntshalintshali and of course, Coca-Cola Wus Up by the innovative queen of TV Nomcebo Malinga.

These programmes did amazing results for the products and even today I have a packet of Nik Naks as I’m typing this while sipping on Liqui Fruit, 20 years after the adverts and sponsored programmes. So imagine if today there was a TV programme called for example Sunny Sugar Golden Hour?

So, in my previous life, I had a long-running feature column in the then Times of Swaziland, called Boxed Up. This feature made me many friends with the viewers as I analysed the TV programmes daily.

COMFORT ZONE

It, however, did not rub many of those working at TV well at the time. This was because I spoke of things they needed to do to get out of their comfort zone and make TV the way we had it growing up.

The more I wrote though, the more we saw change and the tension between me and the broadcasters faded. They saw that I meant well. Today, we see Eswatini TV on the right track and all social media forums. We see a station ready to take on any social media outage and still provides us with real-time important feeds on our TV sets regardless of whether we have social media or not.

This is the same posture as print as the Times of Eswatini has a daily headline round-up in video format in the mornings as well as exclusive news. They will never be Boxed Up despite any blackouts. So while you get excited about downloading the latest app, do not sell that TV just yet and also do not stop buying that paper. After all, they work so well together and offer us a beauty of choice and reality.